


A Quest Without the Gods

by BobSaysHelloFromNL



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Post-The Blood of Olympus
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-06
Updated: 2015-12-28
Packaged: 2018-05-10 00:24:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 23,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5561704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BobSaysHelloFromNL/pseuds/BobSaysHelloFromNL
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With the last bit of power Gaea had left, she possessed a child of Hecate to perform a spell. Now, a week after BoO, everyone but the children of the Big Three has forgotten about the gods. They'll have to find each other and combine forces to turn everything back to normal. Problem is, they're sort of trapped in an AU that Gaea created for them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Percy didn't notice anything until breakfast. And even at breakfast nothing out of the ordinary happened, but that was exactly what he noticed. Nothing weird happened, no one made strange comments, and the goblets weren't enchanted. Instead Percy had to fill his goblet himself. It was then that he got confused about what was happening. He looked around to look at the others' reactions, but nobody complained about the goblets. He also couldn't find Nico. Maybe he overslept?

He quickly finished eating and went over to Annabeth. "Hey Wise Girl, can I ask you something?"

With a smile she turned to him and gave him a peck on the cheek. "Sure, what about?"

"Why are the goblets not working?" He blurted out.

Annabeth gave him a weird look and so did some other children of Athena who overheard his question. "What are you talking about?"

"The enchanted goblets." Percy frowned in confusion. "Didn't you notice? I'm sure you did cause you filled it yourself."

"Yes, I filled them myself... Are you okay, Percy?" Annabeth suddenly asked in concern.

Percy blinked astonished. "Uh, yes. I think so. I mean, I didn't get much sleep last night, but…"

"That must be it then! Go back to sleep Percy, We'll clean the stables without you." She reassured him, which worked a little bit. That must be it, he was imagining this because he was tired. He almost laughed at himself; he must look really stupid right now.

"Thanks Annabeth. Tell Blackjack I said hello." He slightly grinned.

Annabeth chuckled. "Alright, I'll tell your horse you said hello, but I don't think he'll understand it."

"What are you talking about? Of course he will understand it. Did you just call him a horse?" Percy asked Annabeth mind blown. How could she insult Blackjack like that?

Annabeth raised an eyebrow at him. "What else should I call him, a dog? No, that's Mrs. O'leary." She paused. "Just go back to your cabin, Percy, everyone is watching."

Percy raised his head and saw that indeed everyone was listening to their conversation. He blushed in embarrassment and followed Annabeth's orders to get some sleep.

When he woke up for the second time that day, it was once again because of a nightmare. He looked at the clock and saw he slept for six hours, which was long compared to last night. Hopefully he now was awake enough to understand what in Hades was going on with the goblets. Or was he really just seeing things?

Whatever it may be, he could only find out if he got out of his cabin. He checked for riptide in his pocket and opened the door once he felt the sword. He decided to go for a walk around camp to search for his friends. The Second Giant War had ended only a week ago and they were already busy building new cabins. The first few days everyone had to deal with the aftermath of the war and Leo's death, but then they got an IM from him saying he found Calypso and is alive. He also informed them of the little trip he would take with her, what he didn't tell them was when he would return.

Percy was happy for Leo and Calypso, maybe it will be awkward to see her (especially after what happened in Tartarus) but she deserved someone as great as Leo. And of course Leo deserved someone like her too. It was also nice to know that everyone was alive. Except for Octavion of course, he died a tragic death and was the only real sacrifice that was made. Percy didn't really like the way he died, but if that was what it took to win the war, he could accept it.

At the moment Jason, Frank and Hazel were at Camp Jupiter. Frank had to stay since he was a praetor, and Hazel stayed with him since they're still a couple. Not that she minded though, they're both real Romans. Jason was just visiting there because he chose to become the Pontifex Maximus and thus had to keep switching camps to make sure that they honored every god.

The rest of the seven, Piper, Annabeth and him, were at Camp Half-Blood where everyone was busy with repairing things and building things. Like Annabeth stated in the morning, cleaning the stables was one of the tasks. A task he had actually been looking forward to, he had not seen Blackjack much since the war ended.

He stopped walking and looked around, he had unconsciously walked to the place he had just been thinking of, the stables. Percy decided that it couldn't hurt to take a quick look at Blackjack and the other pegasi. He entered and froze at what he saw. The pegasi looked like horses. His eyes widened and he ran up to Blackjack. No wings.

'What happened to you?' He asked the former pegasi, seeing none of them had their wings. No one responded and he got worried. Did the gods do something to them? Annabeth must know what was wrong; she was here this morning, right?

"Annabeth!" he shouted which caused some horses to nicker in fear. He ran out of the stables in shock, shouting for Annabeth.

"Katie, do you know where Annabeth is?" He hastily asked the daughter of Demeter when he passed her. "Um, no, sorry." She replied.

He cursed and ran over to Malcolm. "Where's Annabeth?"

"The Big House. Why?" He asked Percy, but he didn't get an answer. Percy took of to the Big House and was there in no time. He saw her talking to Chiron who was in his wheelchair form.

"Annabeth, Chiron, what happened to the pegasi?" He asked them concerned. They mirrored that look. "Oh gods, something bad happened to them." He concluded with wide eyes.

"Nothing happened to the horses, but obviously something did happen to you." Annabeth told him slowly. "First you ask me something about the goblets, about how I filled it myself, and now you're here worried for the pegasi who don't exist." She took a deep breath. "What happened to you, Percy?"

Percy felt guilty for making Annabeth and Chiron worry about him, but more than everything he felt confused. He was sure that there were Pegasi and enchanted goblets at camp. Or was he going crazy?

"I… Nothing happened, I'm fine." He tried to reassure them. They didn't look convinced.

Chiron nodded slowly, not believing it at all. "Okay, but to be sure we will take you to Will."

* * *

"Percy? Why are you here?" Nico asked him once they found Will. Nico had spent a lot of time with the son of Apollo since the war ended. Even now, when Will was busy taking care of the wounded, Nico was at his side.

"Annabeth and Chiron want me to get checked by Will." Percy pouted a bit. He was almost certainly sure that he was fine. The rest just wasn't.

Nico frowned and looked like he was about to protest before he changed his mind. "What are you getting checked for?" He tried to make a conversation. They had not seen each other that much because things went a little awkward after Nico confessed about his crush on Percy.

Percy shrugged. "Saying weird things, apparently."

"Okay Percy, sit down on the bed. Relax, this will only take a minute." Will told him. "Did you hit your head?" Percy shook his head.

"How are you sleeping?" was the next question.

"Not that much, but still, It's more than enough." Percy lied. He heard footsteps nearing and looked up to see Grover and Piper walking to him. Grover is wearing pants, he noted. And shoes.

"We heard you were with Will, is something wrong?" Grover asked him concerned.

Percy shook his head. "Then why are you here?" Piper asked him without traces of charm speak.

"Because I saw pegasi without wings and goblets that didn't fill itself." Percy said with a roll of his eyes.

Will looked up in surprise. "Pegasi without wings? I'm sorry, Percy, can you explain what exactly you are talking about?"

"When I woke up I decided to visit Blackjack, but when I arrived at the stables the pegasi didn't have their wings anymore. Am I the first one to notice?" Percy asked disbelieving.

The others shared a look. "Percy, they don't have wings because they're horses." Annabeth broke the news to him.

He almost had a heart attack. "When did they lose them?!" he panicked.

"Percy, they never had them to begin with." Grover tried to explain it further, but Percy wouldn't listen.

"No, you're lying. When did you learn to lie, Grover?" Percy tried to joke. He still was mad that someone hurt the pegasi.

Grover shook his head in concern. "You know I'm a lost cause, I can't lie. And I'm not lying to you."

"Calm down." Nico ordered him. "Tell us where you got the idea of the horses being pegasi."

Percy slowly nodded, a bit irritated. "Okay, fine. I'll just play along for now. Where do I begin?"

"Let's start simple, do you know where you are?" Will asked him.

Percy scoffed. "Camp Half-Blood."

"And what is you whole name?"

"Perseus Jackson." He grimaced.

"Do you believe in mythological things like pegasi?" Will cut to the case.

Percy chuckled amused. "Yes, I do." He looked at his friends, how did they manage to look so serious? Nico was good at hiding emotions, Piper was the daughter of a famous actor, Annabeth could misguide opponents with only words, but Grover? Percy never knew that he was an actor.

Will went silent for a moment, letting his answer sink in before asking the last question. "What do you believe in, and why?"

"The Greek gods." Percy answered without breaking a sweat. "Because I've seen them, and so have you."

Everyone looked surprised and he heard Annabeth mumble something. "No… no, no, no… this can't be happening…" She shook her head. "He's just kidding…" she raised her head to look at Percy, tears shining in her eyes. "Don't you dare joke about his."

Now he was lost. "What do you mean? You are the ones playing a prank on me, aren't you?" He looked over at Grover, Piper, Will and Nico. They looked dead serious, well, except Nico. He could never tell what he was thinking, but his eyes betrayed his concern.

He didn't understand this anymore. No pegasi, no goblets, no gods… What was going on?

"Annabeth, could you please tell me what kind of camp this is?" He crossed his fingers and prayed to the gods, who might not be real, that she would answer correctly.

"It's… a summer camp in New York where we learn to fight. With weapons… A-and…" She bit her lip.

"So… No gods?" He already knew the answer, he was just clinging to his last hope that someone would stop the act and tell him that he wasn't going crazy. His instinct told him that they weren't lying, but even he didn't have enough imagination to think of all that.

Nico shook his head sadly. "No gods. Just, mortals and a normal summer camp."

Piper turned to Will. "Do you have any idea what caused this?"

He furrowed his eyebrows. "I think you'll have to take him to the hospital for a real check-up. I'm not a professional doctor yet."

Percy's head shot up. Leave camp?

Annabeth took a huge breath. "Alright then, we're going to the hospital whether you like it or not, Percy."

"I'll go with you." Grover and Nico said.

Percy sighed in defeat. He didn't stand a chance against them all, unless he still had his demigod powers and they didn't.

Inside his head a plan formed. He didn't want to get locked up in a mental institute or something like that. Of course the gods exist, it was just a question why the rest didn't remember them. But there was a slight chance he was wrong, and that's why he had to get prove first. And he knew exactly where to get that.

First he had to ditch the rest. "Okay, let's go then. On to the hospital."

They brought him to the camp borders, where he didn't see Peleus. Who he did see was a two-eyed Argus, it was even more unsettling than when he had eyes all over his body.

He nodded at them and got in the driver's seat. Percy sat in the back, with Grover at his left side and Nico at his right side. Annabeth took shotgun.

Percy spaced out for the biggest part of the drive. He thought his plan over, looking for flaws. A major one was the fact that he could be wrong and he really lost his mind. He didn't like that flaw, but it was the best plan he could think of. He was not a child of Athena, if she's real, that is.

"Percy, we're here." Nico nudged him. Percy blinked dazed and looked out of the window. Sure enough, there was the hospital. He wasn't going inside, he decided.

He calmly stepped out of the car. "Isn't that my mom over there?" He squinted his eyes at the hospital building. "Yes, it's her!" And then he took a run for it while the others tried to find his mother.

He turned around and crossed the street, almost getting hit by a car. "Percy! Come back!" He ignored them and entered a random building to lose them. It was a clothing store. He hid between some clothes and tried to act like a normal costumer at the same time.

His friends ran in sight, frantically looking for him. His breath caught, Nico was staring right at him. Percy's eyes widened and he got out of his hiding spot. Maybe he could leave the store in time.

But when he came outside he saw that they had split up, Nico went left, Grover straight on, and Annabeth right. Did he only imagine Nico looking at him? He shook his head to focus on the task at hand. Getting away from them.

He had no idea where to go, but his instinct told him to go right. He crossed a few more streets, and pushed people out of his way without feeling any guilt for it. Knowing that he saved the world two times over cleared his conscience. He did save the world, didn't he?

Then he saw where his instinct was leading him, water. Only one way to find out if his powers still worked. He cleared the last few streets and dived into the freezing water bellow him.


	2. Chapter 2

Being underwater felt natural to Percy. He could stay there for days, he didn't have to breath anyway. It also cleared his head. He now knew exactly where he should go.

The Empire State Building, 600th floor. If his friends refuse to answer, then he will just go and ask the gods. If he had more time he could've grabbed a drachma before they left camp so he could IM. But now it's too late for that and he has to get his prove another way.

Percy waited for an hour, which normally would've been torture, but he needed an hour to settle with the fact that he just ran away from camp and the reason why he ran. They don't believe in gods. And he did. That means that either the whole camp was wrong, or he was.

After that hour he shot out of the water while drying himself of, and then ran as fast as he could to Olympus. Percy didn't really care about the fact that if his friends where still looking for him, they surely have noticed him by now. As long as he could get to the Empire State Building, it was all right. He reached his destination in no time, it wasn't exactly hard to find. He had been there a million times already, and it was a high building so he could just run into that direction.

He slammed the door open and marched up to the familiar doorman. "600th floor, please." It sounded more like an order than he had meant it to, but it didn't matter anyway. The guard was just going to deny the existence and then he would still get the key after proving that he was a demigod.

"That floor doesn't exist, now go away." He grumbled with a frown.

Percy rolled his eyes. "Yes it does." He waved his hand and water spat up in the doorman's face.

He jumped up in shock, not expecting the cold water. He quickly wiped his face dry with an angered look. "What the fuck was that for? Guards, show him the door, please."

Percy stared at him in disbelieve. "Wait, what? No, you're supposed to give me the key now!" He shook his head wildly. "Just give me the key, I know there is a 600th floor!"

A security guard showed up and grabbed him by the arm, but Percy resisted. "I am not leaving!" He looked upwards to the ceiling. "I saved your asses at least two times! Let me up there!"

Somewhere at the back of his mind he noticed that some other people in the room were filming him, probably enjoying the show very much. Meanwhile the guard slung Percy over his shoulder and walked to the door. Percy didn't stop struggling. "Stop playing tricks with me, I know you exist!"

Percy managed to get himself free and made a run for the elevator. He rammed his fists against the closed doors, all the while cursing the gods. Another two guards showed up, and the three of them were enough to hold Percy down until he calmed down a bit.

When most of the anger faded away he just sat there on the ground in shock, the crowd of people started going on with their lives as if nothing happened. But something  _did_  happen, the gods didn't let Percy in, and he had no idea why. At least, no idea that he was ready to accept.

"Are you alright, kid?" the doorman asked him after a while. The two new guards had already gone away, reassured that Percy wasn't going to put on a fight.

Percy shook his head. "Not exactly." He didn't really feel like sharing his problems with the man who was part of the problem. After all, he didn't hand Percy the key. Even after Percy clearly showed his powers to him.

"Do you know someone who can come pick you up?" He asked Percy in slight concern.

Percy almost shook his head before he thought better of it. "Yes… my mom." She would never betray him by lying, so if she knew something than she would tell him. Unlike his friends… and his father. Percy used to think that his relationship with his godly parent was better than most demigods had, but maybe it was all just in his mind. If he cared for him at all, why wasn't he here?

' _Don't think like that,'_  he immediately scolded himself. ' _That's how Luke thought about the gods, and look where he ended up with._ ' No, there must be a good reason for this, and maybe his mother could tell him what it was.

He gave the doorman his mom's number, which could've been really awkward in another situation. Percy numbly sat on a chair while waiting for her to show up, the only thought running trough his mind was why exactly he couldn't just go home by himself. He was 16, almost 17. But apparently it wasn't safe for him to walk home after a break down of sorts.

"Percy!" His mother called out after entering the building. She ran up to him in concern. "What's going on?"

"I'll tell you later" Percy said and hugged her. "Can we just go home for now?"

She nodded in acceptance. Percy shot a slight smile at the doorman before calling a cab.

* * *

"Mom, what do you know about Camp Half-Blood?" Percy asked her once they sat down in the living room. On the ride home they didn't really talk about important stuff, he didn't want to talk about the gods with a mortal driver around.

Sally frowned in confusion and concern. "Why? Is your amnesia returning?"

Percy shook his head, before realizing that maybe he could use it as an excuse to hear the whole story again. And of course there was a small chance that he truly has amnesia, he didn't really know for sure.

"Maybe it is, so could you tell me what happened in the summer when I was twelve and who my father is?" Percy blurted out. "Actually, just tell me every important moment at camp."

His mother bit her lip. "Alright then, but please tell me if you can't remember something that I'm about to tell you."

Percy nodded, feeling guilty for probably having to lie to her, but he couldn't tell her that he believes in Greek gods if it's all just in his mind. She would be worried sick.

"When you were twelve you got kidnapped with two others, Annabeth and Grover. You managed to escape by stealing a gun. After that you found out about the camp that both Annabeth and Grover go to and went there too." Sally said.

Inwardly Percy frowned, that is the story that was used to cover his quest up, so in fact he did remember it, he just didn't know it really happened… "I know that story, yes."

She looked a bit relieved. "A year later you also went to camp, together with Tyson. At camp you discovered that he was a half-brother. Not related to me, but to your father. But you already knew that, didn't you?"

Percy hastily nodded. "That's not something I could forget that easy."

"But you forgot it the first time you got amnesia, last year."

He grimaced. "Yeah, you're right. But Tyson doesn't look like you, I just couldn't remember him at all."

His mother chuckled. "Anyway, you didn't really like being related to him, so we send you on a sailing trip near the Bermuda triangle. Unfortunately, you ended up sailing into it."

"What was the sailing trip for?" Percy asked, he originally thought that it was because of a quest to safe Thalia, but his memories about quests and gods weren't that convincing anymore. It just sounded ridiculous compared to his mother's story.

"It was a bonding trip, with Annabeth, Grover, Tyson and Clarisse. Honestly, I was a little surprised when I heard that she was going too, but I guess it's understandable since she is the owner of the boat."

"Right," Percy decided to just believe his mother, "and she got the boat from her father, right? As a… present."

"Her father is dead." Sally solemnly stated.

"But, that can't be he's –" He cut himself of, he wasn't ready to reveal himself yet. "How did he die?"

"I think it was a war, though I'm not sure which one. Everyone at camp lost a parent, remember?" She responded sadly.

"I do, dad was lost on sea…" Percy slowly answered her, not really sounding as if he believed the story.

"Yes… Yes, he is." She swallowed. Percy got the message to not ask about his dad anymore. "So the trip worked." It wasn't really a question.

"Luckily, you and Tyson bonded very well. You never told me exactly what happened on that ship, but I've got loads of pictures. Some include Grover in a wedding dress and you as a guinea pig." His mother slightly grinned at that thought.

Percy blushed, so he really was a guinea pig, he had hoped that it was one of the fake memories.

"Next year camp sent you, Grover, Annabeth and Thalia to pick up some new campers who lost  _both_  their parents. I drove you there so I finally got to meet your friends in person. I already got a feeling that there was something between you and Annabeth." His mother teased him and he blushed again.

"The boy, Nico, went with you to camp. But his sister decided to join another camp instead. That ca-"

"Wait, what camp did Bianca join?" He interrupted her.

"The Hunters of Artemis, a rival camp." His mother patiently answered. "So that camp came with you to Camp Half-Blood. You told me they hated men, but I think you were exaggerating a little."

"They do." Percy butted in. Sally sent him a questioning look and he explained himself. "They hate men, otherwise they wouldn't join. It's only allowed for girl virgins.

She shrugged helplessly. "You don't tell me every single thing that happens in your life."

"That's because you don't want or need to know every single thing." Only after did he realize that it came out a bit harsh. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that, mom." He meant that all the details about the monster would be too much for her.

"It's alright. Where was I? Have I mentioned Annabeth and Artemis?"

He shook his head.

"Annabeth and Artemis didn't come with you, they went somewhere else, you haven't told me where…" She trailed of, hoping that Percy would tell her now.

"My lips are sealed."  _Because I don't know where they went either._ He did remember where they ended up, but of course that wasn't what really happened. Instead they got lost, and where trapped inside a collapsed cave. Percy, Zoë, Phoebe, Bianca and Thalia searched for them. Percy didn't exactly have permission, but he was worried for Annabeth. It didn't go very well though, Zoë, Phoebe and Bianca died because the cave collapsed even further when they were inside. He didn't know it for sure, but he thought that the room turned a little bit darker when she told him who died. As if all happiness and light got sapped out of it, but only for a little while.

"Nico ran away after you told him. You saw him again a year later when you Grover and Annabeth went searching for three people. You helped Annabeth search for a long lost relative on her mother's side of the family. They helped you search for Nico, and you helped Grover find Pan, a famous environmentalist who disappeared face of the earth years ago."

"And we found them all, but for Pan and Daedalus it was too late." Percy finished that part of the story.

Sally nodded, happy that Percy remembered it.

"Two years later Anna-"

"Why did you skip a year?" Percy once again interrupted.

"Nothing of great importance happened that year. Or did you lie to me?" She questioned him warily.

"I-no… I don't think so." He sheepishly said, not mentioning the war that was supposed to have happened.

"Oh, wait! I think you're right. I forgot something." Sally remembered.

"Really? What is it?" Percy asked, hoping that he was right after all.

"You and Annabeth got together!" She shouted in excitement.

Percy blinked astonished and a little disbelieving. That's the only thing? He had to admit that it's important, but it's not everything. What about the prophecy? He had been worried out of his mind about a few riming lines, and now the others deny its existence… Did the prophecy of seven even exist? Had he really survived Tartarus?

"What comes next?" Percy asked her, his mind still reeling about the Titan War not being real.

She chuckled. "Annabeth kidnapped you on a vacation along with five others, three of them from another camp in San Francisco. Later on Nico and Reyna joined you. You and Jason had an accident and got amnesia."

"Okay, that's it!" Percy shouted in frustration and stood up. "I have been trough  _two wars,_  don't deny it! Annabeth didn't kidnap me, Hera did! And she also switched Jason and me so our camps didn't attack each other. I-please, mom. Stop lying to me." He felt guilty when he saw his mother's startled look, but it didn't help his anger.

"Percy, I'm not lying. Look, I know that you probably can't remember everything because of that accident, but you do remember  _me_ , right?" Sally stood up and grabbed Percy by the shoulders.

He nodded.

"Then you also remember that I would never lie to you to make you upset." Percy calmed down a bit and they sat down again.

"So, what wars were you talking about?" His mother asked after a moment of silent.

"The Titan War and the Giant War. The first one ended on my birthday just as predicted in the pro-" This time Sally was the one to cut him of, she raised her hand and looked over at her phone that had started vibrating.

She walked over and looked at the caller ID, "Oh, look. It's Annabeth." She raised it up so Percy could see her name flash across the screen. "Do you want to take it?"

Percy's eyes widened and he shook his head frantically. "No, I don't want to talk to her right now."

She raised an eyebrow at him but accepted the call herself. "Hi Annabeth, yes it's me. Yes he-" Percy shook his head again and signaled a no. "Eh, I mean, he's not here right now. Isn't he supposed to be at camp?"

Percy heard Annabeth talk, but couldn't make out words. His mother frowned in confusion and looked over at him. "Hang on, Annabeth, I'm going somewhere more private."

Percy was freaking out, what did he do now? Go with Annabeth who was probably telling his mother that he was crazy, or flee? He had nowhere to go, and maybe he should just stay and accept that he has amnesia and is now imagining strange things.

It was a hard decision to make, but the only reason he had to run was because his memories told him something different than the rest remembers. He wasn't stupid enough to believe that it's just a massive mist explosion or something like that. This was far worse; the gods rejected him from Olympus, which could maybe mean that they don't exist. Or Zeus went crazy again because of a treat and closed of Olympus, just like he had in the Giant War.

For a single moment a crazy thought crossed his mind.  _Why don't I take a swim in the ocean to find my father?_  But he quickly dismissed that idea, it wouldn't matter if he doesn't exist or is locked up in Olympus. Still, the idea was tempting. Even if he couldn't find his father, he wouldn't have to deal with all this. He could just swim forever and talk to fish.

Then he realized something, before he arrived at the Roman Camp, Juno had offered him the exact same thing. He could've lived a calm life in the sea, but instead he chose for a war. There were two reasons for that; the first was because he could see his friends again. And the second was the one he had never admitted out loud. He was a hero, it's in his nature to stay and fight, not run away and live by himself. He had responsibility, so it had never been an option to run away. He had thought that the choice was his to make, but in reality he only had one option. He wouldn't be able to live with himself knowing that he left the others to fend for themselves.

So why was it that hard for him to decide what to do now? It hadn't even been a year ago that he made the decision. Did the war really change him that much? Of course, now it's an entirely different matter, but he still had to choose between staying with his friends and running away to the sea. There was also a third option, but then he would need a place to stay that wasn't the sea. And he didn't have that.

If he flees, he will never know whose memories were right. But if he stays… it's clear that the others don't have any demigod powers, while he still has them. And he could also get locked up in a mental hospital.

His mother's footsteps came closer again, she had finished the call. Annabeth could be here any minute now. She wouldn't be stupid enough to call her in time for him to go far away from here. Sally could've just as well told Percy to run away, so Annabeth would make sure to only call last minute.

Was he still enough of a hero to make the same choice and stay where he was? The war had ended, and he and Annabeth wanted to retire and go to college together. That meant that he technically wasn't a hero anymore. He was done with it, no more prophecies, no angry gods, and no wars.

"Annabeth asked you to keep me here, didn't she?" Percy asked her without showing any emotion.

She took a deep breath. "Yes, she did. Are you going to stay?"

On the other hand, he didn't want to admit that the war had taken a toll on him. He didn't want to give Tartarus the credit of making Perseus Jackson retire and give up.

He had made his choice. "I will wait here."

But apparently it wasn't his choice to make. A dark figure came out of nowhere and pulled Percy into a dark corner of the room. His mother screamed. For a moment he could only see black and felt himself and his kidnapper move at an incredible speed. So incredible that it was inhuman.

 


	3. Chapter 3

Nico had a crappy day. It started of good; he had slept far longer than usual and almost missed breakfast because of it. But at breakfast it started going wrong. He heard Percy mention the goblets not working when the rest dismissed it like it was nothing. Well, it was  _not_ nothing. It got him suspicious of the others, except for Percy. At the time, Nico didn't understand what was going on. He was only able to figure it out because he did what he did best. He hid in the shadows and watched the others. He hadn't disappeared much since Will all but forced him to be social, but he was still a pro at it.

He observed the whole camp and couldn't believe it when he discovered what was going on. Didn't want to believe it even. It was a relief to know that Percy was still a demigod, but he couldn't act on that knowledge because Percy blew his cover right after waking up. Thinking fast, he went to Will, predicting that Chiron or Annabeth would want to get Percy checked up on.

Nico waited for the others to leave him and Percy alone, but it never happened. And when Percy ran away, he couldn't shadow travel after him in plain sight. He told the others to split up, and when they did, he shadow travelled to Percy's house.

It was only a matter of time before Percy would visit his mom and Paul. It was surprising though, that when Percy came home Sally was also with him.

The feeling of cold sharp meal pressed against the back of his neck pulled him out of his thoughts. "Who are you?" Percy asked distrusting, his voice threatening.

So Riptide was still with Percy. Nico also had his sword, but no one at camp had said something about it. "I'm the mighty Ghost King, but you usually call me Nico. Get your sword away from me, Percy."

"Nico!" Before he knew it he got enveloped in a big hug. Just to be clear, Nico still didn't like hugs and tried to avoid them at all cost. They were awkward and too physical.  _'Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if you just hugged him back,'_ a voice that sounded annoyingly much like Will suggested. With a slight groan and a roll of his eyes he complied with 'his inner Will'. Even more annoying, the voice was right. It still felt a bit weird, but less awkward than before.

He felt Percy relax before suddenly stiffening. He pushed Nico of. "I-I'm sorry. I know you don't like touching others. I just forgot for a moment cause we didn't speak that much since…" Percy trailed of.

Nico hid a grimace, "Let's not talk about… that right now."

Percy nodded, it was true, they didn't speak that much since Nico confessed his crush. They didn't really avoid each other, but they just hadn't been at the same place at the same time. Nico hid his crush for so long because he didn't want Percy to freak out and leave him, but now it had happened because of something else. Well, there was actually no reason for it. They just barely saw each other anymore.

"Nico… where are we?"

Nico looked around with a frown. He had mainly concentrated on getting away, but hadn't thought of a place to go. And yet, he recognized the place. "I used to live here. It's my old home in Washington."

"You mean, before the hotel?" Percy asked him.

"And after." Nico accidently blurted out, then silently cursed himself for letting that slip. "I still come here sometimes, to clear my head or if I want to get away from… people." He confessed. He had told no one of this house, not even Hazel. Of course his father knew, but Nico was the only one to ever come here. It wasn't for sell, so technically it was still his property. All the furniture was still there and it had three bedrooms. The first time he was here there was no electricity, but now he can even watch TV if he wanted to. Nico had suspicions that his father was behind that.

Percy nodded, sensing that Nico didn't want to talk about it any further. "Alright, you got something to eat? I'm starving."

Nico walked over to the fridge, knowing that it would refill whatever he grabbed. "Can you cook?" He asked Percy who made himself comfortable on the couch.

"I'm not great at it, but I won't burn the house down." Percy admitted.

"Never mind, I found some doughnuts. We can have a real dinner later, first we have to talk." He closed the door to the fridge again and grabbed a box of doughnuts from the kitchen counter.

He sat down opposite of Percy and put the doughnuts on the small table between them. "I know you have a lot of questions, so ask away."

Having received the permission he was looking for Percy shot out question after question. "What the Hades is going on at camp? How did you find me? Why can you still shadow travel? Do the gods exist or not? Am I going crazy? Are we both going crazy? Is this all a big prank from the Stolls? Are you real? Do the others still have powers? Why did my mother lie to me? Did she lie to me? She did, didn't she? And how in Hades did the others get my mom to help out in a prank! Even that dude from the Empire State Building helped! Is Annabeth mad at me? Why are you here? How long have you been in that room? Do you even have the answers? Where are-", Percy's rambling suddenly stopped. "No, wait. Let's start with that question. Do you have the answers?"

Nico took a deep breath, careful to not start another rant. "Not all of them." Noticing Percy's impatient look he quickly continued. "But, I know that it is definitely not a prank."

"Then why do I have all those strange memories that don't match with the rest!"

Nico frowned. "Look, I know you're frustrated, but you're not the only one with questions here, Percy. So please, don't take your anger out on me."

"You're right… I'm sorry," Percy sank down on the chair in defeat. "I just expected you to have it all figured out already." Then his eyes widened. "Oh gods, that came out wrong. What I meant was, I thought you would have the answers because you were the one to suddenly take me away from my mom." Percy groaned. "I guess there's no way to say this without sounding like a jerk."

He chuckled drily. "Percy, you could never be a jerk to your friends. You're too damn loyal for that. And to be fair, I do have my reasons for kidnapping you."

Percy raised an eyebrow. "I'm listening."

"Let's start at the beginning. I heard you at breakfast, so I got a little suspicious about the other demigods. After all, what you were saying made total sense to me, but not to the others. So I sneaked around camp, listening in on conversations. Don't give me that look, I'm not a stalker." Nico defended himself. "And even if I am, it came in handy. There were enough hints about the others not knowing a single thing about the gods. Chiron was in his wheelchair form, that doesn't happen often at camp, no one was using his powers, I saw no mythological creatures… the pegasi where just obvious, though."

Nico swore he saw Percy blush. "Why are the others being strange, then? As far as I know, we are the only ones who know all these things."

Nico was going to say he didn't know, but before he could he instinctively closed his eyes when something bright flashed before their eyes. Only when he knew it was safe to look again did he open his eyes, and honestly, he wasn't shocked all that much by what he saw. There was someone in the room, probably a god judging by the powerful glow and him teleporting inside the house. He had never met this god before, but he could guess who it was. The man had black hair and golden eyes, and not to forget, purple/blue wings. He looked a lot like his twin.

"Lord Hypnos," Nico acknowledged him with a quick bow. "Are you here to explain everything to us?" The question may have sounded a bit rude, but it was the first thing that came to his mind.

Percy followed his example and bowed, most likely confused about how similar he looked to Thanatos. His domain was pretty similar too. Death is just a more permanent form of sleep, some would say. Nico knew better.

"Yes, I did. So let's make this quick so I can go again." Hypnos grumped. "The gods ordered me to visit you, otherwise I would still be asleep. Where to start…"

"The gods, where are they?" Percy urged him. Nico shot him a look that told him to be cautious. In the myths Hypnos got portrayed as lazy and a big coward, but he was still a god.

"Let's start with Gaea." Hypnos said, ignoring Percy completely. "She did this to you. Just before she died, she possessed someone with the last bit of power she had left, to poison you."

"How could she possibly poison us?" Nico asked confused. She can't slip poison into their food or something, right?

"I'm not sure. Wait, maybe it wasn't poison…" Hypnos yawned carelessly, making Nico and Percy almost fall asleep. "It could've also been a spell or something. Cast by a demigod of Hecate? Yeah, that sounds about right. But it doesn't matter how she did it. The point is, you're sleeping."

Beside him, Percy pinched himself. "Nope, I'm feeling pretty awake."

"Well, you're not. Trust me kid, I'm the god of sleep. Don't you think I would know the difference between awake and asleep?" Hypnos raised an eyebrow, more awake than before, which was probably a bad sign.

"But why would she put us to sleep, what is there to gain for her?" Nico diverted his attention from Percy; worried that Percy might actually answer,

Hypnos narrowed his eyes at Percy one last time before responding. "Power. It's always about power, shouldn't you two know that already? From what I heard, you finished a quest, once."

Fortunately, the son of the sea didn't correct him on the number of quests they'd succeeded in. "How is she able to steal our power away from us? I didn't even know that there was a spell for that. Or was it poison?"

"She is tapping it away from you with some freakish power. Or it was part of a complicated spell that only she knows. That's what you get from making enemies with a primordial goddess. Especially when she is technically this planet. So if you don't wake up soon, you won't have the power to wake up anymore. Oh, and she will rise once again, which won't be good either."

"Okay, so then we'll just wake up. Problem solved, right?" Nico asked, fearing it wasn't so simple.

Hypnos shrugged carelessly, as if Gaea destroying the gods wouldn't affect him. "Good luck with that."

"What do you mean?" Percy asked suspiciously.

"If you really thought she was just going to let you wake up again, you're too naive for this life. She made sure that there was someone stopping you from getting out. Someone she trusts with the job." Even when in a hurry, gods still manage to be cryptic about everything, and it annoyed the son of Hades to no end.

"Who is it?" Nico asked the obvious question.

"Tartarus," Both Nico and Percy paled visibly. "I don't think you've met him," Hypnos went on, "but he's strong and big. And I think I heard someone saying he was dating Gaea. I'm not sure if the gods meant Tartarus himself, or just Tartarus. Very confusing, if you ask me."

"Wait, are you saying we have to go to Tartarus?" Percy asked, his voice surprisingly calm.

"I'm not saying that, I'm telling you it might be smart to do so if you want to wake up, and not cause a… second? A second Giant war." The god looked thoughtful before continuing. "There's something else that you must know, and I'm only telling you because I'd rather not wake up to Gaea destroying civilization. You're not the only ones trapped in here. Gaea chose the demigods who hold the most power of all."

"Children of the big three." Nico realized. He knew all too well how powerful they could be, he was one of them after all. And at the moment, there were four others. "Oh gods, Hazel, Thalia and Jason!"

He looked over at Percy who this time wasn't even trying to hide his concern. They both knew first-hand what Tartarus was like and didn't wish for anyone to have to experience it, especially not their friends/half-sister/cousins.

"Where are they? Is another god explaining everything to them, right now?" Percy asked.

"No. I'm the only god capable of being here, Gaea made sure of that. I'm not even supposed to be here, but she can't keep me out forever since I'm the god of dreams. Speaking of that, I can't come here whenever I please, so don't contact me unless it's really important."

"Where are Thalia, Jason and Hazel?" Percy asked once again, this time more firmly. "Or as you may know them, the other children of the big three."

The god sighed, "I do not know. They should be at the same place as where they fell asleep, but no one told me where that might be."

"So we're trapped in a dream with no other way out except for Tartarus, you are the only god who can occasionally drop by, and our cousins are also here." Percy summed up. "Is that all?"

Hypnos coughed a bit awkwardly. "Er… you forgot the part about causing another war."

Percy rolled his eyes. "Of course, a time limit. Well, I guess we just received another quest, Nico."

* * *

"Jason, I must speak to you." Reyna said when he was just about to head back to Camp Half-Blood. He was supposed to stay at camp for a while longer, but a meeting he had about a new temple got canceled. Well actually, nobody showed up so he assumed that it got canceled without his knowledge.

"Okay, what is it?"

"Not here, somewhere more… private." Reyna turned around and walked away, silently telling him to follow.

They were silent until Reyna opened the door to the praetors' office. When she motioned for him to go first, Jason became a little nervous. The fact that she wanted to speak to him  _here_  either meant that she didn't trust him to tell the truth, or that it something was seriously wrong. Sure, it wasn't the first time they had talked here, but that was when Jason was still a praetor. Maybe he was just becoming a little paranoid, but he hoped that it wasn't the latter. The war had just ended a week ago, and he wasn't looking forward to another huge disaster.

But that would mean that it was his first theory. They both knew that it was impossible for him to lie here, if not for her two dogs, then because of Reyna's black eyes that could probably see right trough every lie of his.

What he didn't expect to happen was for the door to slam shut behind him as soon as he stepped inside. "Reyna? Did you just lock me up?" He asked turning around, unsure of what was happening. Jason was mildly surprise by how calm he sounded; maybe it was because he trusted her?

"Yes, I did. I'm sorry Jason, but it's for your own safety, probably." Her muffled reply didn't clear it up the slightest.

"What do you mean?" Jason felt stupid for talking to a closed door. "What's wrong?"

It was silent for a moment. He guessed that Reyna was considering the consequences of informing him on the situation. Finally, she spoke. "I just got a message from the Greek camp. They said that Percy was acting weird and ran away, soon followed by Nico. Annabeth is really concerned, so she asked me to make sure that you were okay. She thinks that something happened to a family relative."

"A… a family relative? I don't see how I'm involved in this."

"Don't be stupid, Jason. I know you know what she's talking about. Family. You're their cousin, and therefore it is highly possible that you are running of too. At least, that's what Annabeth says. I'm not that convinced myself, but a few hours won't matter."

"Cousin? Are you really going to bring up how we're all related to each other? Seriously, I thought we agreed long ago that our family tree was messed up? If I'm part of Nico and Percy's family, then so are you." Jason rolled his eyes, though a bit concerned for Annabeth. Reyna already admitted that she thought it was stupid, but Annabeth isn't supposed to come up with something like this. She must be really out of it.

He couldn't really blame her, the last time Percy went missing he was gone for six months. Oh god, Percy was gone. And so was Nico this time. He suppressed the panic bubbling up inside of him, he shouldn't think about that now. Jason should focus on how to escape, he can't be of any use as long as he is locked up in here.

"Maybe Annabeth was right. And even if she isn't you're not exactly thinking straight, Jason." Jason couldn't be sure because of the stupid door in between them, but Reyna sounded a bit… worried. "Did something happen to your family?"

"Reyna, you're family too." Jason deadpanned.

"You're making no sense, you know that, right? Anyway, I have to go. Aurum and Argentum are there too keep you company."

"Wait, Reyna!" Jason shouted after her, grabbing the door handle. He of course already knew that it was locked, but that didn't keep him from trying to open the door.

With a sigh he turned around and searched the room for anything he could use to pick the lock. The door was the only way out since he wasn't going to destroy a window; the dogs would kill him. Speaking of the dogs, he hadn't seen them yet. He searched the room but couldn't see them, he walked over to a slightly darker corner of the room that had been out of view and saw something very surprising. Two dogs.  _Real_ dogs. Not two automatons, but furry, slightly less scary dogs. One of them was white, and the other one blonde.

He carefully approached them, half expecting them to suddenly turn into what he was used to seeing, when the door opened. Jason spun around, reaching for his gladius. His relaxed a bit when he saw who it was.

"Hazel?"

 


	4. Chapter 4

After having dinner (Nico shadow travelled to the McDonald's) and a good nights sleep (they were able to fall asleep again after a nightmare) they were ready to start their quest. They had already decided to start with collecting Hazel and Jason, because they had no idea where Thalia was. So that morning, they shadow travelled to Camp Jupiter.

"Where should we start looking?" Nico asked. They had ended up in the Little Tiber, so they wouldn't be seen. Percy had created an air bubble around them, but Nico still wasn't too comfortable underwater.

"Well, I don't think we should go to the city of Rome, Terminus will know it even if we enter from the water."

Nico was about to nod in agreement when he suddenly realized something. "Terminus isn't here."

Percy frowned. "Right, I forgot. In that case, what time is it?"

"We left around 5 o' clock." Nico remembered. "Big chance they're still sleeping. Even the Romans don't wake that early. So what should we do, just grab them in their sleep?"

Percy contemplated it, "That would scare the crap out of them… Let's do it!"

Nico allowed himself a small smile as Percy shot them both out of the water- straight into some Romans!

"Ah, look out!" A girl's voice shouted, almost pushing Nico back underwater.

"I'm sorry, didn't know you were there." He apologized to the blonde haired girl, before his eyes widened drastically as he realized they were already spotted. "Run!"

He pulled Percy away from the two Romans. They both sprinted to the fifth cohort, where Hazel and Jason usually were.

"Hey, get back!"

Nico winced at the loud shout; if the other Romans hadn't been awake before, they sure as Hades were now. Fortunately, they both were in excellent shape and thus able to outrun most of the Romans if needed. Unfortunately, they were drastically outnumbered.

"You get Hazel, I'll go find Jason!" Percy ordered Nico once they neared the familiar buildings.

Nico nodded and looked behind him. There was a good distance between them and the angered Romans. He just hoped that it would be enough to get them all away in time. He had no desire to fight a mortal, let alone the whole camp, to get out of there.

"Meet me in the stables." He said in return, before the two parted ways.

Nico forced the door open, quickly making his way to Hazel's bed before the others could react. He pulled the covers away and saw that the bed was empty.

* * *

Afterwards, Thalia prided herself in not being as slow as the boys had been. Immediately after waking up the other day did she know that something was wrong. First sign: her immortality was gone, and with it her somewhat silver aura. Second sign: her silver circlet was also gone. And the fact that no one else noticed was the most disturbing of all. They were hunters of Artemis; they were supposed to see something as important as that. Especially with their improved senses.

So when she knew that something was wrong, which was very soon, she sneaked away. No, that was not a stupid move. It wasn't, because she knew that if she were mistaken, they would just have to ask Artemis to find her again. But Thalia was almost completely certain that she was  _not_ mistaken. Why else would her immortality suddenly be gone?

Well, maybe 'gone' wasn't the right word. She could still feel the powers that she had been given when she became a hunter, but the immortality itself… it felt like someone put a pause on it, if that was even possible.

But Thalia didn't know  _everything_ that was going on, of course. She had no idea what was wrong with the hunters. And Iris Messaging didn't work. That had gotten her worried, but then she'd decided to just walk to the Roman camp. Really, it was just a day's walk if all went well. Nothing to worry about, she had even brought her carry able tent with her!

Maybe it was a bit strange, but all her magical items were still there. Her spear, bow, hunting knives and shield, and also some magical items that the hunters had used to easily set up a campsite. Hence the chewing gum sized tent.

So Thalia's mood wasn't as bad as it could have been, she hadn't run into any monsters yet, and the Roman camp was just an hour away.

* * *

"Percy!" Nico shouted as he ran into the stables. The horses were startled, but at the moment he had other things to worry about. Things like the horde of Romans, who apparently had orders to capture him and Percy. "Where are you?"

"In here!" Percy suddenly appeared next to a horse, near to the end of the stables. Surprisingly, the horse didn't panic. It seemed that even without speaking horse, Percy was still well liked by most of them.

"Quick, in about thirty seconds a few dozen Romans will be in here, grab my hand!" Nico ran up to him, shadow traveling as soon as their hands touched.

They reappeared near to the river, the same place as before. Understanding Nico's plan, Percy pulled them both underwater, smoothly creating an air bubble.

"Where's Jason?" Nico asked.

"Not in his bed."

"Neither was Hazel. Do you know where they are?"

Percy shook his head, "I didn't have any time to ask the other campers, it's hard to have a conversation when they want to knock you out."

"You woke them up too?" Nico asked, not very surprised.

"Sure did, but they're sleeping again. I knocked  _them_ out instead. Don't underestimate them though, they are still as good at fighting as they were as demigods." Percy said gravely. "I don't like fighting with them."

Nico nodded in agreement. "Unfortunately, they won't believe the truth, and there's no convincing lie to tell them."

"And now we're back to where we started. Except for the Romans now being extra alert." Percy groaned. "I wished Annabeth was here, she would have about five pans already, not to forget backups and backups for the backups."

"Well, she isn't here," Nico stated, just the slightest bit bitter about Percy mentioning Annabeth, "so we'll just have to make a plan ourselves."

Percy bit his lip, "Alright, what do we do next? I'm sure that by now Reyna has already been informed."

"Which means that she's probably planning something already."

"I think she knows who we're here for." Percy added thoughtfully. "Which mean that she'll put extra defenses at places where we are most likely to go to… I think."

Nico raised an eyebrow. "Actually, that's some pretty good thinking. So, in that case we can't go to any of those places, but where should we go then?"

"Maybe we can follow Reyna around? There's a big chance that she'll tell  _someone_ about Hazel and Jason. Maybe she even knows where they are now?"

Nico smiled. "Who knew that the Great Percy Jackson could use his brains?"

Percy laughed slightly. "Don't speak too soon, most of my plans tend to go wrong."

"I'm willing to take that risk."

"Don't say I didn't warn you." Percy teased, before turning serious again. "Okay, I'm not that good with sneaking around, so I think it'd be best if you get close to Reyna, and I'll be near you if things go wrong."

Nico agreed to the plan, and soon they were both in position. Nico hid in an extra dark shadow in a corner near Reyna, who not so surprisingly was at her office, giving out orders.

Percy was standing just outside of the building, somehow managing to hide between two big crates that seemed to be loaded with some heavy stuff.

Nico didn't really focus on what Percy was doing, though he was pleased that Percy was also standing in a shadow. This way Nico would know if Percy moved, because even though Percy was there for  _his_ protection, Nico also wanted to ensure that Son of Poseidon himself didn't get into any trouble.

He just hoped that he could get the information he needed as fast as possible. Remembering the plan, he paid more attention to what was happening in the room.

"I want a group of twenty to go to the city, and maybe-"

"Why only twenty? You have placed fifty people on the temple hill, the city is twice as big!" One of the Romans complained, and Nico noticed that it was the same girl he ran into earlier.

"Because the chance that they'll go to the city is far too small to send fif-"

Again, she got cut off. "How do you know for sure?"

Startling black eyes glared into the brown eyes in front of her. "They know that they won't find them in the city anyway, those campers are only there for precautions. Any more questions?"

By now, Nico honestly wondered if the girl was just dumb, or she was trying to get herself killed. "Actually, yes. Why do we have to capture them, can't we just tell them that Hazel and Jason aren't here anymore?"

They're not here? Nico frowned. That was bad news. Like,  _really_  bad. How should they ever find them now? This quest was really proving to be difficult.

"They ran away from their summer camp, I doubt they'll just return to it again so soon. There must be a reason for them to leave." Reyna rolled her eyes. "Now, where is Frank? He's supposed to be here already."

Suddenly, movement from Percy caught his attention. Percy had moved from the shadow, and Nico didn't know where he was anymore. Had he just simply switched positions to get a better view, or had he been caught? Nico soon got his answer.

"Reyna, I found Percy!" Frank entered, holding Percy firmly, though also gently, with one hand. "He was hiding outside." Nico knew for sure that Percy could easily escape. So why hadn't he already? Well, whatever may be the reason, it sure played out very nicely for them. Now he just had to wait… He had after all already gotten the information he wanted.

Everyone in the room looked up in surprise, not having expected to find one of them so fast.

"You have?" Reyna asked, even though Percy was now right in front of her. She coughed to cover up for her surprise and turned to the gathered Romans in front of her. "All of you, spread out and but stay close. If Percy was here, then Nico must be nearby."

They nodded and complied, even the girl from earlier.

Nico dared to come out of his hiding place a bit, just to make eye contact with Percy, who had strange enough already been looking at him. Percy winked, before his eyes suddenly shifted to the opposite side as the one Nico was in. Catching up with his plan, Nico had to grin.

Reyna, as aware as ever, noticed his swift eye movement. "Frank, hold Percy there for a moment, please."

She walked over to the corner, and moved a few big items from their place. It was then that Percy made his move, having effectively gotten rid of Reyna for a moment.

He turned around and gave Frank a quick but hard push, somehow managing to let the bulky Canadian/Chinese boy lose his balance temporarily.

Nico also took action. It, however, only involved grabbing Percy's hand again and pulling them both in a shady corner, perfect for shadow travelling unnoticed.

* * *

The first thing Thalia noticed was that Terminus was absent. Which was quite fortunate for her, as she disliked being weaponless. The second thing she noticed where the strategically placed campers, spread widely over the city. She also noted the lack of armor, and the usual seriousness. They all looked very bored, which she could understand since they were just standing there. However, it was also alarming. They were Romans, they were used to just standing on guard somewhere.

So what was it that made this time different? Deciding that it couldn't hurt to just ask, she stepped up to some girl with blonde hair and brown eyes, which she didn't remember ever seeing before.

"Hey, you! What are you all standing here for?" She asked rudely, going straight to the point.

The girl though, didn't look fazed by her tone at all. "Honestly, I don't know. Reyna has already confirmed that she doesn't think it is needed to be here."

Thalia raised an eyebrow, indicating that she had no idea what the girl was talking about.

"You don't know already? Percy and Nico where seen at camp today, I was there when they jumped out of a river." The girl said, as if it explained everything. It didn't.

"So what? Never seen them before?" Thalia asked incredulously, the girl wasn't a fan of her cousins, was she?

"Of course I have!" She defended. "But with the things that have happened recently, we had gotten orders to capture them."

Thalia frowned, wondering what her cousins had been up to. "So that's why you are standing here? To capture them?"

The girl hesitated. "Well, no. At first, we had already captured Percy, but he somehow managed to escape. We're just standing here to be sure that he and Nico didn't go here, although Reyna and Frank seriously doubt they did."

"And why do they doubt that?"

"Because there's no way that Hazel and Jason are here." At the mention of her brother and her other cousin her eyebrows shot up. Were they all involved in this?

"What does this have to do with Hazel and Jason?"

The girl's eyes widened. "Wow, you've really missed a lot, haven't you? Reyna ordered for Jason and Hazel to be locked up temporarily."

"Why? Where are they?" Thalia almost growled, mad that they were being treated that way after all they'd done. Wasn't Reyna a friend of theirs?

"I'm not sure why." The girl shrugged carelessly, angering Thalia even more. "And as for where they are, I don't know."

"Reyna didn't tell you?"

She shook her head. "They escaped. Reyna claims that she had just been talking to them trough the door, when they suddenly got quiet. When she carefully opened the door to check on them, they were gone."

Thalia had the urge to face palm. What was wrong with Reyna at the moment? Locking up someone who can _shadow travel_   _and find/control tunnels_ with someone who can  _fly_ , without even keeping an eye on them? Thalia was now really beginning to worry. Not only about the apparent loss of brain cells Reyna had, but also about her cousins and brother. What the Hades where they doing? One thing was for sure. Whatever was going on with everyone, they were involved with it. Thalia needed to find them.

* * *

Hazel knew something was wrong, even before Reyna had locked her and Jason up. The Mist, it was gone. She couldn't feel it anymore, though Hazel hadn't known that she could feel it before. Only when it disappeared, did she know that she could sense its presence.

But now the presence was gone. Her powers over the Mist however… It had gotten a bit harder, but she had already tried if she could make a book look like a cookie. Needless to say, it worked. Maybe it was a bit strange because now she had to 'create' the Mist first before she could use it, but it wasn't impossible to do so.

In front of her, light broke through the previously dark tunnel.

It hadn't taken her and Jason long to escape from camp. Jason had at first suggested shadow traveling, but Hazel had only done it once, with her brother. So option two was going underground, and Hazel made sure that there wasn't any sign of the tunnel ever being there from above, they didn't need Reyna following them down.

"We should be far enough from camp now." She told Jason once they were above ground again, having emerged somewhere in the woods.

"Where are we going, though?" He asked. Hazel had already told him about the Mist being gone, and in return he told her about the strange conversation with Reyna before Hazel had also gotten captured. It was suffice to say they had a lot to talk about in the hours they'd spend walking.

She shrugged sadly, "From here we can go anywhere, as long as they don't find us."

Jason pushed his glasses up, a habit he had picked up since the war had ended. The war. It was only a week ago, and here they were, trying to hide from Camp Jupiter. She had honestly believed that it would remain calm, at least for a few years.

"What is happening, Jason? It's like the world suddenly turned upside down. The Romans are trying to capture us, instead of being on friendly terms. The mist is gone, instead of being everywhere. Percy and Nico ran away…" Hazel sighed.

Jason nodded in agreement. "Do you think Nico and Percy had a good reason to run away? I mean, how are we supposed to know if something happened at Camp Half-Blood?"

Hazel shrugged. "We could always go there? Annabeth was the one who told Reyna to keep an eye on us, right? So it started with her…"

"That's decided then, let's go to Camp Half-Blood."

 


	5. Chapter 5

Thalia knew everything. Well, not literally everything, but everything of great importance to her. Which at the moment, was that Gaea had somehow made a demigod child of Hecate cast some kind of spell on the big three kids, and afterwards she completely forgot about Thalia! Like, who the Hades did that? According to that stupid empousa who was willing to tell her everything if Thalia let her live, Gaea was too disoriented to remember that there were more demigods of the Big Three other than the ones that had been traveling on board of the Argo II.

Thalia scowled at the memory. Apparently, she wasn't important enough for Gaea to remember. What a bunch of bullshit. ' _It may also be a good thing',_ the empousa had said. ' _She doesn't know that you're here, she won't follow you.'_

_Thalia snarled. 'How do you know for sure? You spoke to her?'_

_'No, but she told every monster that they'd get a warning once they near a demigod of the Big Three, unless she orders it to kill them. She wasn't lying either, I got one when the two romans- damn it!' The empousa slapped a hand for her mouth._

_'You know where they are? Tell me, now!'_

_The empousa squeaked in fear. 'Please don't kill me! Tartarus hasn't gotten any better since those blasted demigods escaped.'_

_'I won't kill you if you tell me where my cousins are.' Thalia said dangerously, her anger now doubled at the mention of Tartarus._

_'They are heading west. To Los Angeles.'_

* * *

_Earlier that day_

Hazel had been acting a bit weird since they left. At first, Jason didn't say anything about it. He wouldn't be too surprised if he himself were also acting weird. There were some strange things going on, so it only called for some time to be quiet and think about it. They didn't talk much, only when absolutely necessary. Not when they entered a city. Not when they got on the first train headed for New York.

Nothing happened for a while, but when it did, they had been traveling for about four hours. Jason was getting fidgety. Again. Their uncharacteristically silence had been going on for one hour, when finally Jason had given in to his boredom and started rambling about something he didn't even remember anymore. For the rest of the trip they'd shared some small talk, neither of them willing to talk about how short-lived the peace after the war had been, and how crappy that is. It was like some silent agreement to not bring up the topic of the strange behavior at Camp Jupiter. Or the disappearance of the Mist. Talking about it just made it seem more real, something they both didn't want.

But now Jason was bored all over again. "Hazel, as much as I enjoy talking about the weather, it's getting harder to avoid the thing we've both been thinking about since the start of all this."

Hazel sighed defeated. "I know."

Jason waited for her to go on, but when it became clear that she wasn't going to he said, "Let's start with Reyna. I think she was acting really strange. How about you?"

"It feels like something is missing." Hazel stated with a glassy look in her eyes, ignoring Jason's attempt at a start of conversation. "Gone. Not here anymore."

"Deceased, you mean?" Jason asked.

Hazel frowned. "No, not like that. It has something to do with death, though. But the emptiness, it's more like… like with the Mist!"

"The Mist?"

"Yes!" Hazel cheered up, as she now knew more about where the strange feeling was coming from. "One moment it was there in the back of my head, and the next it's gone!"

"Are you saying that the Mist isn't the only thing gone? What is the other thing?" Jason asked urgently.

"I don't know." Hazel bit her lip. "It's on the tip of my tongue. I'd recognize it if I heard or saw it again, but I can't exactly place this feeling."

"Can you describe it for me?" Jason asked curiously.

Loud screams from somewhere behind Hazel interrupted her reply. Startled, Hazel jumped up and whirled around. Jason also stood up to get a better look. His instinct made him reach for his weapon, but what he saw made him pause. A few rows from away them two ordinary looking men where standing in the middle of the narrow hall.

"What was that for a beast?" One of them, the younger looking one, said disbelieving. They were both watching the window fearfully. "Where did it go?" He then turned to his friend. "You saw it too, right?"

He nodded stiffly, mouth hanging slightly agape.

"Excuse me, sirs. What exactly did you see?" A curious boy, no older than eleven, asked from the other row. Only then did the men realize the scene they'd caused. Glancing at each other, the first man replied, "It's nothing. For a moment there I thought I saw a huge black dog."

Jason looked at Hazel, trying to read her mind. Was she thinking the same thing he was?

"Oh," The boy tilted his head. "Are you afraid of dogs?"

"Not usually. This one was just really big. Look kid, it's probably nothing. Don't worry about it, we should go back to our seats." He sat down still looking a bit shaken, forcefully pulling the second man with him.

Jason and Hazel also sat down again.

"They are not just clear sighted, are they?" Jason asked bluntly. "I guess we could've expected something like this to happen. The Mist is gone, right? That means that mortals can see everything."

"I know." Hazel calmly stated.

Jason sensed a 'but' coming.

"But that's not the thing I was surprised about. I know what the other missing thing is. That feeling. You were close. It wasn't someone's fading live force, but it has got to do with death."

"Well, don't go beating around the bush, tell me what it is!"

"It's the Underworld. Something is wrong." Hazel said ominously. "I don't know what, but it's important."

"The Underworld?" Jason repeated in shock. "What kind of thing could be happening there? It's not something big like the Doors of Death again, right?

"I can't know for sure, but I don't think so. It's important, but not life threatening so. I think."

Jason nodded, feeling the slightest bit relieved. "Can we do something about it?"

"Maybe. We'll have some problems entering though. That is the only thing I know for sure." Hazel answered.

"But… you still want to try and go there." It was no question.

"Are you coming with me?"

"Are you sure this is a smart thing to do? We've been traveling for hours to get to Camp Half-Blood." Jason hesitated. "And with the whole supposed to be dead thing you've going on…"

Hazel nodded confidently. "I am sure. The sooner we go the better. Maybe my father can even help us get to camp once the problem is solved."

Jason noticed that she didn't say what camp they'd return to. "Alright then. How do we get there? Can you shadow travel us?"

"I… I have never been there except for my death." Hazel frowned in realization. "I don't even know for sure that I  _can_ shadow travel there. Even under normal circumstances."

"Is there another entrance? You know, for non-shadow-travellers?"

Hazel's face lit up. "Yes, there is! Nico once told me where the main entrance is. Percy, Annabeth and Grover also used it on their first quest. It's in a place called the DOA Recording Studios, somewhere in Los Angeles."

"California again? We just left San Francisco!" Jason groaned incredulously before resigning with the fact that they'd been travelling four hours just to turn around again. "The next stop is in five minutes, we can get off there."

* * *

"They aren't there!" Percy exclaimed in frustration the moment they arrived at Nico's old home in Washington. "This was supposed to be the easy part, after this we still have to figure out a way to escape this world, dream, whatever you want to call it!"

"That roman girl said they aren't at Camp Jupiter  _anymore_." Nico said a lot calmer, walking over to the couch. "Which means that we got there too late."

Percy sat down across from him. "Where can they be now? They could've gone everywhere.

"What would be the most logical place for them to go, the first place they'd think of." Nico wondered out loud.

"Camp Half-Blood." Percy offered. "But we can't go there. They're looking for us, and I for one don't want to be found." His voice sounded hollow, even to himself. Didn't he want to get back to camp? See all his other friends, Annabeth…

"Percy, I know what you're thinking, but we can't go there. They think we're going crazy."

"I know, but I don't like it. Thalia's location also remains a mystery."

"Are there other places we all know off? Something of importance, like Olympus. Except Olympus isn't here…" Nico faltered, he quickly collected himself. "Some place you visited on a quest?"

"Like  _Alaska, Greece, the Sea of Monsters…_ " Percy raised an eyebrow.

"You're doing it on purpose." Nico accused him half-heartedly.

"Doing what?" Percy grinned cheekily, the tense air had suddenly disappeared.

"Naming places so far away from each other."

"Am not." Percy said challenging.

"I'm not going to answer to that." Nico's face was adorned with a small scowl.

"Kill joy."

"I'm not a kill joy." Nico defended himself.

"Are too."

Nico glowered at first, but he couldn't suppress the laugh that escaped his throat.

* * *

"By the gods, Alaska is even colder than I remember!" Percy complained for the hundredth time in half an hour. He was shivering madly, rubbing his arms to create more body heat.

"We're not exactly dressed for this weather." Nico replied for the fifteenth time, though he was also shivering from the cold. They'd visited a shop before they went to Alaska, but apparently it didn't sell any winter clothes in the middle of the summer. They had to settle on various layers of clothing instead.

"Look, I don't think any of our cousins are crazy enough to go here without a good reason to, so why don't we just get out of here?" Percy suggested as another gust of icy wind came their way.

"Agreed." Nico shadow travelled them away to the airport. They both still  _hated_ flying with a passion, but they figured since there was no Zeus, it should in theory be safe to go by a plane. They didn't need to pay because Nico managed to shadow travel them right into the right airplane. It was by sheer luck that there were some empty spots left. They repeated the manner of traveling to get back to Washington again.

"So Alaska was unsuccessful." Percy stated once they'd gotten rid off most isolating layers of clothing. "Where to next? This time you are the one doing the brainstorming."

Nico sipped his hot chocolate. "Can't argue with that. Why did I agree to go to Alaska in the first place?"

Percy shrugged. "It was the first quest Hazel and I went on together."

"Well, I'm never going there again."

"Me neither. But seriously, where do we look next? Is there a name that pops up in your head? Some kind of half-sibling telepathy?"

"No, I don't have some kind of half-sibling telepathy with Hazel." Nico deadpanned.

"So you do have a name?" Percy teased.

Nico shrugged. "Well, kind off."

"Wait, you do?" Percy's eyes shot wide open. "Where?"

"It's not really a place to look for the rest, it won't work."

Percy rolled his eyes and leaned forward. "Nico, just tell me. This could be a hint of sorts."

"It's not a hint. The Underworld is gone, just like Olympus. Atlantis most likely too."

Percy was stunned to silence for a moment. "I didn't even think of the possibility. Could've expected it, though."

Nico nodded. "But it really isn't that important. I just felt that it's gone. We can't do anything about it, and we can't meet the others there."

"But maybe we can." Percy looked astonished by his own realization. "DOA Recording Studios. Who knows, maybe it's actually successful in this dream, hard to imagine... Do the others know of the place?"

Nico sat up straighter. "Hazel knows."

"Can she also feel that the Underworld is gone? Maybe she can, maybe she remembered the Head Entrance. That means that Hazel, and Jason if they're still together, will probably go there."

"Percy, you are a genius!" Nico exclaimed, before frowning. "Well, sometimes. When you're not sending us to Alaska."

* * *

Annabeth sighed as she stared at the face of her sleeping boyfriend. He looked so peaceful lying there in the hospital bed, trapped in a dream that is produced by a long forgotten spell. Though she knew that his dream was anything but peaceful, it was relieving to watch him sleep so calmly. Relieving, and also completely  _terrifying_. His chest going up and down was the only sign of life.

He didn't twitch. He didn't make any sounds. He didn't drool.

She remembered sitting next to his bedside when he first came to camp. It was fascinating how many things could happen in four years. The scrawny, little boy had turned into her powerful, handsome boyfriend.

They'd gone on so many adventures together. And the months apart only proved that out of sight was  _definitely not_ out of mind. It only made them more determined to stay together. Even through Tartarus. Together they could do everything.

But now Annabeth wasn't there to help Percy, and gods know how much he needed her! He wasn't alone, but he wasn't with her either. Annabeth couldn't stand feeling so helpless. If only there was a way to join in on the dream. Some way to enter another's dream…

 _But there **is**_   _a way to do that,_ Annabeth realized.  _Cabin 15, Hypnos._


	6. Chapter 6

It was a quiet evening in Los Angeles. Well, as quiet as it could get there. There weren't many clouds and the sunset was spectacular. The birds were each singing their own song, hopping from branch to branch. Cars were honking at each other in the midst of all the sounds that came with rush hour.

Nico and Percy didn't pay any attention to the other sounds around them as they heard shouting coming from inside the building they have been heading for all day.

"Are you sure that it hasn't moved somewhere else?" Percy asked with a hint of doubt in his voice.

"It hasn't. Not in real life," Nico trailed off. "Gaea could have altered it, though I don't think she has."

"Well, if that's the case the Recording Studios must have actually gone into business." Percy said as he looked shocked at the people entering and leaving the building.

Nico grimaced at the thought of the waiting room being filled with living people. "It would explain all the commotion inside. The dead only complain to Charon from time to time, but never have I seen them picking fights with him."

"Is it a good or bad thing?" They'd started walking toward the building again.

"It might be both, but considering the fact that Gaea created this word, it is most probably a bad thing for us." Nico said casually.

Percy nodded in agreement. "We're still going inside, though." It was not a question.

"Course we are."

The closer they got, the clearer the shouting was. They could now decipher that there was one girl, and several males involved in the shouting match.

"You don't understand, I HAVE to go there! It's of great importance to all of us!" That voice was clearly the girl, although the voice was too distorted for Nico or Percy to be able to recognize it.

Percy glanced at the sign above the doors.  _DOA Recording Studios_. Percy couldn't help but chuckle, a very dry, humorless chuckle. He remembered when he visited this pace on his first ever quest. That was before things started going seriously downhill. A lot had changed since then, some of them good (becoming Annabeth's boyfriend had been a very welcome change) and some changes were horrible (naming  _them_  won't be necessary).

"You ready?" Nico asked him.

"Let's do this." Percy pushed the door open and instantly the voices became louder and clear.

"I am not allowed to let you in, nor do I want to, so leave!" Charon raged, his face red with anger. He looked just like he had all those years ago. Immortality did that to you.

"We are not leaving, not after we've travelled miles to get here! Just a few minutes,  _please_." With surprise, they recognized the voice as Jason's. His voice was tight with held back anger, but to a stranger it would've sounded way more collected than it had been first.

"NO!" Charon snarled at Jason, before turning to the familiar girl. "Now, I request you kindly to remove yourselves from this lobby, or I'll have someone else do it for you."

"Request denied." Hazel said boldly, her hands clenched into fists. She would've said or done something uncharacteristically stupid if Nico hadn't pulled her back by her arm.

"Hazel?" His voice held a mixture of emotions, ranging from relief to surprise and confusion.

"Nico!" Hazel and Jason exclaimed simultaneously.

Percy coughed awkwardly, but the happy twinkle in his eyes gave him away. "I'm here too, just so you know."

They both found got a quick hug from Hazel, Jason settled for a hasty smile, seeing as fist-bumps weren't that appropriate at the moment.

"Great, even more kids in my lobby." Charon complained loudly. "Whatever it is you're here for, the answer is no. I've got better things to do than argue with some teens. Just look at all the people in line."

Percy glanced at the row of people, all of them alive. Most were staring at the scene going on before their eyes in annoyance, but none of them looked like they were planning on doing something about it. Percy couldn't for the live of him figure out what they were standing in row for, if they weren't there for the ferry. Dead or alive, it seemed that DOA Recording Studios just wasn't complete without a swarm of waiting people.

"Well, to me it looks like they won't mind waiting a few more minutes after already standing there for fifteen, which wouldn't have been necessary if you had just let us in." Hazel accused.

"Don't blame it on me, girl. I'm just doing my job and not letting everyone walk inside. You could've just left the moment I said no."

"No, we couldn't have. I know that it is important for me to be here." Hazel insisted.

"Such a shame then that you can't stay." He countered mockingly.

Percy nudged Jason. "What is this all about?" He asked, gesturing to Hazel and Charon.

Jason shrugged. "We were on the train to New York when Hazel suddenly got the urge to go to the Underworld. She already predicted some troubles with getting in. Hey, is this really the entrance?"

Percy nodded. "It was. But here it isn't. Nico told me that it was gone."

"Gone?" Jason echoed incredulously. "You mean that even if Hazel manages to get us through these doors, all we'll find is an ordinary Recording Studio?"

"Probably, yes."

Jason groaned. "Great, so we came here all this way for nothing."

"Not for nothing," Nico suddenly added in on the conversation, making Jason jump in surprise. "We found each other, which only leaves Thalia."

Jason looked at Nico in curiosity. "We'll explain later," Percy said in response to his unspoken question. "First we'll have to get out of here without drawing too much attention to us."

Percy noticed Jason looking over their shoulders. "Yeah… too late for that. Guys, turn around."

The sight that met them was one of Hazel being scurried of by big, dark-clothed security guards. Percy bit back a curse. "By the gods, what is it with this world and security guards?" He then hastily made his way over too Hazel, pushing his way through the mass of guards that had filled the room in a matter of seconds. Percy distantly wondered if the real DOA also had that many men in with sunglasses.

"Woah, woah woah, calm down, guys! Look, we'll just go now, if that's okay with you. We know where the door is, thanks for the offer, though." He held up his hands as the universal way of indicating peace. These guards must have come from another universe, because they all pulled out their guns and aimed it at Percy and his friends who'd come to stand beside him.

"Well, schist." Hazel cursed with a grimace.

"I didn't know you still had that whole schist thing going on." Percy commented, more to calm his nerves than because he wanted to strike a conversation with all the men surrounding them.

"We are so screwed." Nico stated.

"No, we aren't." Jason scowled. "We can fight them of just fine."

"They're mortals." Hazel reminded him. "We can't fight them."

Jason almost wanted to say that they could talk themselves out of it, when he remembered Piper wasn't there with them.

"Plus they have guns and we don't." Percy chirped in.

"Well, we can't just give up. They may throw us in prison, or worse,  _shoot_  someone." As if they heard Jason say it, one of the guards, the boss, said, "Lay down your weapons, now."

"Weapons?" Percy looked at them in faked confusion, a look that Annabeth told him looked very convincing. "We don't have any weapons on us."

"Percy, the Mist is gone."

Percy paled, and so did Nico. "The- the Mist? Gone? But- how…?" Percy stammered.

"Gaea." One word, well, name explained it all.

Percy pressed his mouth into a thin line. "I'm getting seriously annoyed with her."

"Let's talk about our feelings for her later, when we're not surrounded." Nico suggested wryly.

"Lay down your weapons." The security-guy said again, his voice empty of all emotions but loathing. "This is your last chance to come with us willingly."

Hesitantly, Nico was the first to comply. He pulled his sword out and lay it on the ground slowly, maintaining eye contact with the guard as he did so. "Jason, Hazel, put your weapons own as well."

Percy's hand grazed the pocket of his pants. He could feel Riptide against his skin. If the Mist is gone, shouldn't they be able to see that it was not a pen? Or did his sword have some other kind of magic?

When three of the four were disarmed, they took a step away from the small pile of weapons on the ground. The boss nodded curtly at his team, and at his command four of them stepped forward, each lowered their gun and handcuffed a demigod.

"Check their pants for more items. Hand everything you find to me." The boss said, his eyes lingering on Percy's for a minute before going to Charon's. "I'll take those delinquents with me, you won't have to worry about them anymore, that I can guarantee you."

Charon nodded satisfied. "I expect to hear from you as soon as possible, most preferably with the news that they are behind bars."

"Behind bars? We did nothing wrong!" Percy exclaimed ridiculed.

He nodded. "Yes, that's were you'll be going. Got a problem with that?"

"Uh, yeah. I do. Like I said, we did nothing wrong!"

"Jason grace, Nico di Angelo, Hazel Levesque and Percy Jackson, you are all under arrest for underage possession of weapons, mouthing off to authorities and being demigod scum." The guard said straight-faced, no one paused to consider that he shouldn't have known their names.

"What? You've got to be kidding, right?" Jason looked pale. "Do you even have the right to arrest us? You're not a cop, are you?"

He disregarded the questions. "Take them to the cars."

Once outside they found several police cars waiting for them, the sounds of sirens filled the once so quiet evening. The blue- and red-flashing kind of sirens, not the mythological ones.

* * *

"Great, just great. What are we supposed to do now?" Jason asked as he paced the holding cell.

"We wait." Nico answered from his sitting position in the corner. There was furniture, but he preferred sitting on the ground to sitting on the cheap toilet. Hazel and Percy occupied the bed. The latter lay sprawled out with his feet constantly moving, making the whole bed shake. Hazel sat modestly on the edge of the bed, though she was also becoming restless considering how twitchy she was getting.

"Are you sure that you have ADHD too, Nico? How can you be so calm about this?" Percy stood up and began pacing, mirroring Jason's movement.

"I'm not calm, I just know that we can't do anything while we're being watched by cameras." Nico remained seated on the floor, even though there was more than enough space on the bed now. "That includes, no shadow travelling to freedom."

"I may be able to create some Mist to make it look like we simply opened the door and walked out." Hazel said after a long silence. "But I'm not sure if I'm strong enough to do it."

"Wait, you can  _create_  Mist now?" Percy asked.

"It takes some more effort and I haven't really practiced it. It's something I've only discovered once the actual Mist disappeared."

"I don't want you to try it if we're not sure how it will effect you. Draining yourself doesn't help anybody." Nico said, worried for his sister.

"How about we just stay the night here, resting. We can try it tomorrow morning," Jason thought out loud. "Maybe sleep in shifts."

"I'll take the first one, and the second," Percy offered glumly. "I don't think I'll be able to get much sleep."

They all nodded in understanding, not even trying to talk him out of it. They all had their fair shares of nightmares, but Percy's were worse and came more often.

"I'll join you." Jason said.

"You take the bed, Hazel. I'll just sleep here." Nico said, knowing fully well that the others weren't planning on waking Hazel, and neither was he. For the plan to succeed, Hazel would have to be well rested.

Under the circumstance they were in, Nico didn't expect to get much sleep. He was proven wrong when he fell asleep the minute his eyes closed, his head tilting sideways. To the outside world he slept like the dead, while in fact he was being pulled into someone else's dream.

* * *

Clovis woke up to Annabeth rudely shaking him.

"Thank gods, you're finally awake!" She exclaimed, showing none of her usual composure. "I need your help,  _please_."

"Annabeth?" Clovis murmured sleepily.

"Yes, it's me. Look, can you help me get to Percy? And the others." Annabeth added as an afterthought. Mentally berating herself for only thinking of Percy while the others could be in just as much danger.

"Get to Percy?" He repeated dazedly.

"Yes, you can send  _dreams_  to people, right?" She spoke slowly, trying to explain her plan as simple as possible.

"Yeah. Yeah, I can do that." Clovis nodded, covering his mouth as he yawned.

Annabeth blinked as a wave of tiredness crept up on her, but she refused to rest until she was with Percy. "So you can also send  _people_  into a dream?"

Clovis stared at her, more awake than he'd been before. "Dunno. Never tried, do you want me to?"

"Yes." Annabeth nodded.

"On you?" He asked to be sure. It was not often that someone volunteered to be the guinea pig to an experiment involving demigod abilities.

"Yes. Will you do it?" Annabeth bit her lip, looking pleadingly at Clovis.

"Okay, but you'll have to wait a few hours. I have to make some preparations first."

Annabeth smiled widely, "Thank you, Clovis!"

Instead of responding, he sank to the ground, fast asleep and curled up against a pillow.

* * *

_The next morning_

It was by pure coincidence that Thalia found it. She was walking around on the streets, waving in and out of the small crowd of early birds, when the newspaper came hurling towards her face. With her fast reflexes, she caught it mid-air. She looked around to see where it had come from, but couldn't find anyone looking at her. She shrugged her shoulders and glanced at the headline.

_4 TEENS ARRESTED AT DOA RECORDING STUDIOS_

Slightly curious because the name of the studio sounded vaguely familiar, her eyes travelled further below to the picture that took up almost half of the front-page. Thalia gasped as she saw the faces of the arrested teens. "Dam it, not even a week has passed and they're arrested."

At the same time she was satisfied with her luck, she hadn't been too late after all. After the empousa told her where Jason and Hazel were headed for, Thalia got on the first train to Los Angeles. It was a big city, so even if they hadn't already left for their next destination, there was a big chance Thalia wouldn't have found them anyway.

Considering that, Thalia thanked her lucky stars that her friends had gotten themselves arrested. She skimmed the lines of the article until she found what she was looking for. They were still at the police station. Reading the last sentence made her blood run cold.

_After speaking to the head of the local police it has become clear that the 4 teens will probably serve a life sentence at Tartarus' Prison."_

Rudely, Thalia grabbed hold of a woman's arm. "Where is the police station?"

The woman looked scandalized. "Earth Street. Just down this road."

Thalia scowled at her as she released her grip, stalking off to the police station, all the while mentally cursing Gaea. Loudly, might she ad. A plan formed in her head, an insane one. She wasn't sure if they allow visitors, knowing Gaea they don't, so she'd just have to break in. Breaking in was the easy part, getting out with the other four was a bit harder. She'd worry about that later.

She pushed open the door of the police station. Without speaking, she opened several doors in search for the temporary holding cells.

"Er, miss, you're not allowed to open every door without asking first." A dorky looking cop said.

Thalia sent him a mocking smile. "Well,  _boy_ , I don't care. Were are the holding cells?"

He must have been very inexperienced. He stuttered, "B-but, I c-can't…" Before he sighed and mutedly pointed at a door at the other end of the room.

"Thank you." Thalia rolled her eyes. This clearly shows that not  _everyone_ is acting weird because of Gaea. Boys were still idiots, nothing had changed there.

* * *

"Nico!" Jason whisper-shouted urgently. "Nico, wake up," he said in his normal voice.

Nico didn't move.

"I'm not kissing you awake, sleeping beauty, have Will do that." Still, no reaction. Jason ruffled his hair, as a last check to see if Nico was feigning his sleep. When that didn't even get a rise out of him, Jason sighed. "He's doing it again," he informed the others. "He's wandering of in dreamland again."

"Should we let him sleep, then?" Percy asked.

"No, that won't help. Time isn't significant in dreams." Hazel clarified. "I just hope that we can get him to wake up without alarming the whole building, for once."

Just that moment Nico shot up gasping, "We have to stay here!"

Jason yelped and took a step backwards in surprise. "You're awake!"

"Guys, keep your voices down." Percy reminded them. "And Nico, what do you mean?"

"We have to stay here." He repeated wide-eyed.

"Yes, you already said that. Why do we have to stay?" Hazel asked him, scooting closer to the edge of the bed.

"I… I don't remember." Nico admitted frustrated. "There was this dream…"

"From Hypnos?" Percy asked. After Nico had fallen asleep the night before, Percy told Hazel and Jason everything that had happened to him and Nico in the past few days

Nico wordlessly shook his head.

"Where exactly do you mean with  _here_?" Hazel questioned. "In this dream, in Los Angeles, in this cell…"

Nico shrugged helplessly. "I'm not sure. It was so clear when I woke up, but now I barely remember anything."

Jason looked at the others' faces. Carefully, he asked, "What is it you  _do_ remember?"

"The message came from camp. The actual camp, with demigods." Nico furrowed his eyebrows. "I think it had something to do with Annabeth."

Percy sat up straighter. "Annabeth?" He asked hopeful. "What is it, Nico? Has she found another way to get us out of here?"

"No. It certainly wasn't about getting out."

"But, should we just continue the plan, then?" Jason frowned.

Nico looked up at him, his mouth pressed into a thin line. "It could make matters worse. I think we should stay here for a while. Until the cops come in."

Hazel nodded in agreement. "Let's just hope that the Mist will work."

"If anyone can do it, it's you." Percy reassured her. "But where do we go once we've escaped? DOA again?"

Hazel shook her head. "I've been thinking about it, and I think that it wasn't actually that important for us to go there. It was only a means to get us all at the same place. Before we met, I got the feeling that I  _had_  to go there, but it's gone now."

Percy nodded. "So were do we go instead?"

"Nowhere. I still think we should stay in Los Angeles, at least until we've got more answers. Once we escape, the cops will be chasing us everywhere." Nico answered.

"What time is it?" Jason asked. "We'll have to make sure that we don't spend too long here."

"It's time to get out of here." To everyone's surprise, it wasn't a police officer that had spoken. The voice echoed through the cell, sounding much louder than it was intended to.

"Thalia!" Jason was the first to break out of his stupor. "What are you- I mean, how did-"

Percy stopped gaping at her and finished Jason's question, "How did you find us?"

Thalia scoffed, stepping closer to the bars. "Congrats, you guys made the front page."

"We did?" Percy asked mortified. "That stupid Dirt Queen, now everyone will know our faces."

"It's great to see you again, Thalia."

"You too, Death Breath." She teased.

"Oh, shut it, Pinecone Face." Nico countered, before getting serious again. "I guess this is why we had to stay here." He looked at Hazel. "Shall we start the plan?"

Hazel nodded. "Yes, I'll start creating it. I'm not sure how long it will take."

Percy shoulders sagged ever so slightly. "But, I thought Nico said that Annabeth was involved."

Nico looked at him with guilt and pity. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that if I wasn't sure. I only knew for certain that we had to stay and wait for someone." Nico blinked in surprise. "Actually, I only just remembered that waiting for someone part. Maybe Annabeth was the one who told me that we had to wait."

Percy shrugged, but didn't look like he believed it. He noted that Jason was explaining the situation to Thalia.

"I too, have something to share with you." Thalia said after she'd heard the most of it. "I threatened an empousa for information and this is what I got. Gaea has ordered all monsters in this dream to stay clear from you, maybe you have noticed that already?"

They all nodded. So far, none of tem had a serious run in with monsters.

"She has also completely forgotten about me," Thalia spit out, still feeling insulted about it. "So until someone informs her of my presence, she doesn't know that there are five demigods here."

"Make that six demigods." Jason said, staring open-mouthed at the door. "Annabeth is here."

 


	7. Chapter 7

_A few hours before entering the dream_

Annabeth felt nervous as she entered the Throne room. The moment Clovis had fallen asleep after he'd agreed to send her into the dream Chiron had come looking for her. He informed her that the gods demanded to see her, and that Argus was ready to give her a lift. There was no questioning why they wanted to see her. Obviously they have somehow found out about her plan, and now they want to either stop her or help her.

Turns out, it was the second one. Although the help wasn't in the form of encouragements combined with all kinds of helpful magical items, but in the form of words. Knowledge. Annabeth, as a child of Athena, could see the clear value of the information shared with her.

That Gaea created the dream world to be an  _exact_  copy of the real one, for instance, was something she hadn't heard about before. No one at camp had. Well, except Mr D and maybe Chiron. Another interesting fact was that she only created North America, which made sense. Why would she waste her powers on the rest of the world if the demigods would probably not even try to leave America?

That led her to yet another topic. "Why did she even bother making it look realistic? Wouldn't it have been easier for Gaea easier to just lock them up in some blank room without doors?" Annabeth asked, looking around at the gods in front of her. Not only the Olympians, but several minor gods and goddesses had gathered.

"None of us knows exactly what goes on inside her head. We can only guess that she wanted to keep them oblivious to the danger by letting them go on with their daily activities." Her mother answered stiffly. "Needless to say she failed."

"If that's the case," Annabeth pondered. "It would mean that there is a way for them to escape." She finished hopefully.

"There is a way," Hecate, the goddess of magic, said. "For them to escape, but they'll have to do it themselves. We can't help them by, per say, reversing the spell, because it's a long forgotten one only Gaea knows of."

Annabeth frowned. Basically, they were saying that they weren't going to do anything for the demigods that have saved their asses more than once. "Then what is it they have to do?"

All the immortals present turned their eyes on Hypnos, who without opening his eyes answered, "Tartarus."

Her breath caught in her throat. Memories of her previous visit there replayed in her mind. "Gaea copied Tartarus and used it as the exit?" She asked astonished and horrified. "They-" She corrected herself, " _We_ have to go through Tartarus to wake up again?"

"Demigods are so predictable." Hypnos opened his eyes for a few seconds only to roll them. "The two boys I spoke to had the same question."

Annabeth stored that piece of information in her brain for later. "And what was your answer?"

"Only that it would be smart to do so if they don't want to cause a second giant war."

"So it's settled then," Zeus boomed all of a sudden. "You'll be send to them to remind them of where the door is, and then you'll stay there to help. Who will send her-"

Annabeth did something stupid then and there. She interrupted the King of the Gods. "Wait!" She hastily said, "I mean no disrespect, Lord Zeus, but I've still got some questions left that I'd appreciate if you answered."

He frowned at her displeased. He'd really hoped he could end the meeting early so they could all go looking for a  _real_ solution, instead of relying on the demigod daughter of Athena to save the day.

"Just a few questions, my lord." She said upon seeing his look.

Zeus nodded eventually. "Very well. But don't waste our time on this."

"Thank you." She bowed. Indeed wasting none of their times, she started firing questions instantly. "How is it possible that Gaea is awake enough to do this? The prophecy was fulfilled, wasn't it?"

Apollo, who was still on shaky ground with his father, answered, as he was the god of prophecies, "It's fulfilled. The prophecy said she'd fall, and she did. But she took the five demigods with her to rise once more."

Again, a prophecy misled them. They'd been convinced that once they'd defeated Gaea, she'd  _stay_ defeated for at least a few decades. Maybe centuries? Two. Gods damned. Weeks. That's what they got instead. Two weeks of rest.

"Does anything they do in the dream effect the world outside?" She asked no one specifically, carefully concealing her emotions in order to think clearly.

Surprisingly, it was Hypnos who answered. It actually shouldn't have come as a surprise, but Annabeth thought he was asleep. "Not in theory. But we don't know what Gaea did. She might have made it possible for them to get hurt or killed." He shrugged. "There are some weird things going on inside her head, let me tell you. Recreating North America? That takes a lot of power to do. Especially if she wants everyone to react the way they would in reality."

That caught her attention. "React the same way," she repeated in a murmur, trying to figure out why it sounded so important. To the gods she said, "Does that mean she doesn't have control over them? If they do what they are supposed to do, she can't make them do something else."

Some of the immortal beings in the room stared blankly at her, having lost her train of thoughts. It was Athena who answered. "It would make sense if Gaea  _is_  capable of controlling them, seeing as she is the one who created them in the first place. "

"So she is capable of altering their actions if she wants to?" Annabeth asked intrigued.

Athena smiled proudly at her daughter, knowing she was on to something big. "Yes, I believe she is."

"Is that also why she didn't create any divine beings? They would take too much power to control?" Annabeth guessed, and she guessed right.

* * *

"WISE GIRL!" Percy exclaimed and ran to the bars separating them. Thanks to the bars the hug was kinda awkward looking, but they both didn't seem to care too much about it.

"Gods, I missed you so much," Annabeth whispered while still holding her boyfriend close. "I thought you would've known better about leaving me after the whole Hera fiasco."

Percy couldn't help but chuckle. "At least you can't judo flip me this time."

Annabeth hummed pleasantly. "I'll get my revenge, Seaweed Brain. Just you wait."

"I've no doubt you will." Percy drew back, only to lean in and kiss her slowly on the lips. The kiss ended all too soon when Percy's head bumped against the bars. With a start he let go of her, glaring at the metal bars of the holding cell. "Well, that kind of interrupted the moment…"

"Yeah, well if it hadn't I would have," Thalia said with a smirk. "We can't stand here all day and watch you two make out."

Percy opened his mouth to say something, but apparently thought the better of it and closed it again.

"What is it?" The daughter of Athena asked him curiously.

He blushed. "It's nothing."

Thalia scoffed. "Spit it out already."

"I was about to suggest that you were jealous, but that would've gross." Percy made a face.

"Huh, you wish!" Thalia clenched her teeth.

" _Guys_! Not the time  _or_ the place!" Annabeth interrupted with a roll of the eye.

Jason came out of his stupor. "She's right… as always. Hazel could be finished almost any minute now. And when she is, we have to act fast." Looking at Hazel, Percy noticed that around her a layer of Mist had formed, making it hard to look at her without seeing random things appearing in it.

Annabeth cleared her throat. "Yeah, about that… You see, before I got send here I spoke to the gods about some things. They told me to remind you about the exit."

"The exit?" Nico looked at Percy. "Tartarus. That's what Hypnos said."

Percy nodded gravely. "Is that where we are supposed to go, Annabeth?"

"They didn't say that. Only that, and I quote: 'It would be smart to do so if we don't want to cause a second giant war.' I'm not sure if we can trust Hypnos, though. I mean, honestly?  _Second_ Giant War? It wouldn't surprise me if he only woke up for a few  _moments_  the past few  _decades_." Annabeth rolled her eyes in frustration.

"Wait a minute..." Thalia said as she realized something, "Tartarus' Prison!"

"What are you talking about?" Jason asked his sister in confusion.

"The newspaper that led me here! It said that you'd probably serve a life sentence in  _Tartarus' Prison!_ " Thalia explained rapidly. "And if Tartarus is the exit, I suspect that it isn't an ordinary prison that just so happened to be called Tartarus'."

"But… If we are supposed to leave through Tartarus we'll have to get thrown into it first," Percy said in shock. "We can't leave. This is our way out."

"Nico, is that what your dream meant? Is it possible that somehow, someone knew that we had to stay here?" Jason wondered. "Annabeth, do you know anything about Nico's dream?"

She shook her head in bewilderment. "No, I haven't heard anything about it. I did go to Clovis for help, though. It could've been him who told Nico? What was the dream about?" The last question was directed at the son of Hades.

He shook his head. "I don't remember much. It's even harder to remember than a normal dream. But it had something to do with you, and I kept hearing that we had to stay."

"Stay in this cell you mean?" Annabeth inquired. "Cause that message is kinda vague. Is it everything you got?"

"Well, there's something else. A feeling," Nico admitted hesitantly. "A feeling of triumph. Like I just had a big eureka moment."

"Sounds to me as if you've figured out that the way to the exit is to stay where we are." Percy said matter-of-factly. "Can't we just settle for that, instead of looking for a more complicated meaning? Please?"

"Sure… but-don't get me wrong on this, it's nice to see you again Annabeth-but how do we know that it's you?" Jason questioned her, narrowing his eyes in slight suspicion. "The  _real_ you. For all we know you could be the one Gaea created."

Annabeth's glare was icy as she looked at him. Jason looked like a dear caught in headlights. She didn't stop glaring until he shivered. Her lips quirked upwards into a smirk as she said, "Prove enough for you?"

The almighty son of Jupiter nodded and wordlessly avoided eye contact.

Percy sighed as he stared at Annabeth with badly concealed wonder. She never ceased to impress him. He couldn't resist drawing her closer for a quick kiss before the atmosphere turned serious again.

"Er, maybe we should tell Hazel that she can stop now?" Jason said only a bit cautious still.

Nico approached his half-sister carefully.

"Hazel?" He called her through the Mist. When he got no reaction he gingerly reached into the Mist with one hand, grabbing Hazel's arm and shaking her gently.

Her eyelids fluttered open and for a moment her eyes seemed to flash white before they turned back to their normal color. "Yes?" She asked coolly.

"Not to disturb you from your Mist-making, but we have another plan. Thanks for the effort, though," Nico said straightforward.

She blinked dazedly. "Oh. All right, I guess. I shall just dispose of the Mist, then." In a blink it was gone, way faster than it had taken to appear. "So, what's this other plan?" She asked them with a frown.

"We're going to get ourselves thrown into prison," Percy blurted out. "Tartarus' Prison to be more precise."

Hazel gaped at him, looking at the rest for confirmation. And then at Annabeth. Her eyes widened marginally upon seeing her. "Okay, what did I miss?"

* * *

Percy's jittery shifting in his seat made Hazel nervous. When they'd explained the plan to her yesterday, she had been too dumbstruck to feel the nerves. But now that they were about to get thrown into prison by the judge, they all came back to her at full force. "Are we sure that it's the right prison?" She whispered, not wanting to disturb the long tiresome process of throwing six children into a high security prison that was going on inside the courtroom. "Cause if it isn't, how are we going to break out of it without drawing unwanted attention to us?"

After Thalia and Annabeth had managed to get thrown into the holding cell opposite of theirs, Annabeth had told them about her conversation with the gods. Some of it they had already known. Everyone had decided that they should go on trying to act like mortals, or else they'll maybe get a death sentence instead of a lifetime in Tartarus.

Somehow, they'd convinced the cops that Annabeth and Thalia had also been at DOA Recording Studios but escaped the security. After how long it had taken them to finally be reunited, they were determined to stick together.

"Don't worry," Annabeth said. "The way it's going we'll get in Tartarus easily."

Percy chuckled humorlessly. "Never thought I'd hear you say that."

"That's not what I meant."

"I know." Percy grabbed her hand, opting to not kiss her while in court.

Hazel felt herself yearning to be back at Camp Jupiter with Frank when she looked at Percy and Annabeth.  _Soon_ , she reminded herself.  _Soon this will be all over. We'll just have to survive Tartarus…_

"But seriously, don't worry, " Annabeth said again. "I get the feeling the judge hates children. Us in particular."

Hazel looked at the stern-looking male in the weird clothes. The permanent frown on his face seemed to deepen when a woman-Hazel had a hard time figuring out if it was indeed a woman-dressed in a plain black dress and hoodie approached him. She said something to him that changed his whole facial expression. The look of annoyance was replaced by a sleepy, not-quite-here serene smile.

"Er, guys?" Hazel gestured to the Judge and the woman. "What is she doing?"

The five other pairs of eyes also turned to watch them as the woman leaned in to whisper something in his ears.

"Is that his wife?" Thalia asked in disgust.

Hazel shook her head slowly. "No, the Judge didn't look all too happy to see her."

"Can't imagine why," Nico said sarcastically. "She looks like a darling."

Hazel snorted in a highly unladylike way.

"Hey, it looks like they've decided." Jason noticed.

All sounds quieted down when the Judge stood up. Looking back at the woman, he simply said, "Not guilty." And then passed out.

All six of the demigods got to their feet alarmed, what was happening? Apparently, the people who had come to watch the trial also thought this. "Not guilty?" A furious man stood up from the bench. "There is security footage of them," He pointed at the six demigods, even though only four of them were visible on the tape. "In DOA Recording Studios. How is that not guilty?"

More and more people rose up with complaints, none of them showing the slightest bit of worry about the poor, unconscious judge who lay on the floor.

"The woman," Annabeth said in realization. "She did this."

"How?" Percy asked.

"It's Gaea!" Annabeth concluded with a start.

The room was in chaos. It was among the chaos that the woman stood up to slip away from the room unnoticed. Until the people noticed her and remembered that she had been talking to the judge just minutes before.

"Hey you!" The same man as earlier ran to block her path. "You did this! Did you threaten the judge to do this?  _What did you do?"_

"Why does he even care?" Annabeth wondered out loud.

Hazel shrugged. "Don't ask  _me_  about people these days. Some of them are just weird like that."

The woman, or Gaea, looked at the man once before he blinked in confusion. "Never mind, I think I confused you with someone else…" He trailed of with a frown. "You know what, it makes sense. They are just kids, they can't be guilty." Then he walked of, murmuring to himself about how wrong it was to throw innocent children in prison.

However, that was just one of the many angry mortals in the room. Gaea turned to them all and instead of whispering she said in a convincingly clear, almost-shouting voice, "These children are innocent and do  _not_  belong in Tartarus' Prison."

Hazel would've expected to feel at least a little bit convinced by her, but to her surprise she didn't. One look at her friends told her that they didn't feel anything either. Yet, half the people in the room calmed down immediately upon hearing Gaea's words. The other half, despite still being angry, didn't follow her as she fled the room.

"Well," Thalia concluded as Gaea was out of sight. "That was some strange shit."

"Gaea just defended our innocence," Jason said with a frown. "That's just… weird."

"It isn't if we wanted to be found guilty," Nico said. "She didn't just stop us from going to prison, or Tartarus. She stopped us from going home."

* * *

_The night before Thalia and Annabeth showed up_

As soon as Nico drifted of with his head against the dirty wall of the holding cell, he found himself standing eye to eye with Clovis, in the middle of Hypnos cabin. "Clovis? How did you find me?"

The boy in question shrugged. "You were already dreaming so it wasn't that hard. It also helps that it's not the first time I meet you in a dream."

"How are things at camp?" Nico asked seriously. "Is everyone alright?"

"Considering the situation you're in, I wouldn't worry about camp too much. But I do have to tell you something. Wait, I'll just show it again." And before the son of Hades could respond, Clovis showed him the memory of Annabeth's request.

"She's coming?" Nico asked astonished. "When?"

Clovis tilted his head and shrugged. "As soon as she's back from Mount Olympus, I think. So it's important that you stay where you are. Um…" Clovis trailed of. "And where is it that you are?"

"At a police station in Los Angeles."

"What did you do to get there?" Clovis asked incredulous before he changed his mind. "Actually, don't tell me. It'll be hard enough to remember the important parts once I wake up, especially if you're dreaming in a dream."

"Dreaming in a dream?" Nico repeated questioningly.

"Gaea choose the first dream, but you fell asleep again and now you're in this dream," Clovis explained slowly. "That makes it twice as hard to remember details.

"So let's make the message extra clear for you." And without warning, the normally so calm and sleepy Clovis raised his voice, "STAY WHERE YOU ARE, ANNABETH'S COMING!"

Nico took a step back, clutching his ears with his hands. Clovis' voice surrounded him, as if the walls were repeating this one sentence. The whole room seemed to echo, and Nico vaguely wondered if it was just a side effect of being in Clovis' dream, or if the cabin was just that good at conserving noises.

"Alright, alright!" Nico called out. "I think I'll remember it now! Cut it out!" He sagged in relief when it finally stopped.

"Sorry," Clovis said lamely. "I just wanted to make sure you wouldn't forget it."

Nico glared half-heartedly. "Gee, thanks. I appreciate it."

Clovis smiled, oblivious to the sarcasm. "Also, I'd like to warn you of something."

"Which is?" Nico asked a bit moodily.

"I'm not sure how the dream will react to Annabeth. It will be disrupted, that's for sure. That disruption may cause Gaea to loose some control over it."

Nico tilted his head, he warily asked, "And that's a good thing?"

"Could be," Clovis answered. "It may give you the chance to alter the dream to your own liking, it's a bit like hijacking her dream."

"If we do that, we might be able to wake up. Cause she's the only thing keeping us there. Tartarus isn't  _really_ there, she just recreated the pit," Nico said, surprised at his own thinking. "But how do we hijack her dream?"

"By letting her control slip. If she isn't in control, someone else can take over." Clovis explained.

"That doesn't answer my question fully. How do we do that?"

"Wreck havoc, create mass panic or whatever." Clovis grinned maniacally, looking more awake than ever before.

Nico grinned too, more triumphantly than maniacally. They had just figured out a way to defeat Gaea. For longer than two weeks.

 


	8. Chapter 8

"Excuse me, sir," Percy said politely, for what seemed like the thousandth time that afternoon since they'd all split up to find Gaea. "Have you seen a woman completely clad in black? She's wearing a long dress and a hoodie."

The man with the mustache shook his head after a moments pause. "No, I don't think I have. Sorry, kid."

"It's fine." He didn't linger any longer and instead moved on to the next person on the crowded street. Another tourist.

Why is it a tourist? Percy had long ago discovered that when someone is holding a massive camera and is looking around in awe: it must be a tourist!

Why ask another tourist? They just so happen to be more aware of their surroundings than the people who were rushing down the streets hoping to be in time for their meeting, date or whatever. So if someone saw Gaea in this part of Los Angeles, then it must have been a tourist!

"Excuse me," Percy repeated. "Have you seen a woman in black? When I last saw her today she was wearing a black dress and hoodie."

"No." The man brushed past him without saying another word.

Percy rolled his eyes at the back of the mortal. Citizens weren't the only ones who could be in a hurry.

Unfazed by the rudeness he focused on his next target, a woman standing behind a souvenir stand selling keychains and enormous hats. She herself was wearing one of the oversized hats, making it next to impossible to see her face, except for her eyes that seemed to glow a disturbingly vibrant green color.

"Excuse me," he said, but strange enough her head had already been turned to him.  _She must be very desperate to sell those miniature guitars if she eyes everyone like this_ , Percy thought with another roll of the eye. "I'm looking for a woman wearing a long black dress and a hoodie, have you seen her?"

"Yessss, I've sssseen her thissss morning," The –apparently snake- woman hissed dangerously.

In the blink of an eye he had Riptide out and firmly in his hand, its blade gleaming a blood red color in the light of the setting sun. "Tell me where she is," he demanded of the dracaena, his voice void of the previous kindness.

"If I were you," she spat out, as if it was the most disgusting thing she could ever imagine. "I would put that ssssword of yourssss away, Persssseussss Jacksssson."

Percy paid the warning no mind, even though he knew that the Mist was gone and everyone could see his sword. And if the woman stepped into sight, the snake trunks she would certainly have for legs would also be openly displayed. But hey, if so far no one found it weird to see a boy pointing a surprisingly realistic sword at an innocent souvenir seller, maybe they will just think she's wearing a very lifelike costume when -or if- the time comes. Stranger things have happened, after all.

"Where is Gaea?" He lifted his sword just a little bit higher to indicate he was in no mood for games.

She didn't seem to get the message. "Now, why sssshould I tell you?"

"Because you want to live."

"You ssssay that assss if you would let me go onsssse I tell you, but you won't." The snake woman didn't sound the least bit disturbed by it.

"If you're saying that I don't have a problem with killing you, then you're right. You know what? Maybe I should just do it right now." Percy threatened, and he full intended to follow up on it but

"The humanssss will ssssee it." The dracaena reminded him, her voice showing exactly how pleased she was with the situation. "And how  _ignorant_  they may be, murder issss murder."

Percy frowned, lowering his sword a little. If the mortals see him kill a woman with serpent legs, they'll freak out. Well, freak out, snap pictures, throw him some money because they may think it's an awesomely performed act and call the cops. Which would get him arrested. Again.

But then he remembered what Nico had said just after Gaea had pulled that little disappearing act of her.

"Gaea doesn't want us to go to Tartarus. She doesn't want us to get arrested. She doesn't want us to look guilty. But," Percy shot the suddenly nervous looking dracaena in front of him a grin. "When have I ever done something to please her? Maybe I  _should_  kill you in plain sight, just to annoy our dear Queen Dirt Face."

If it had been possible, her already pale-greenish scales would've turned even paler.

"Where is she?" he asked once more.

She hesitated, eyeing his sword warily. Then her eyes suddenly lit up in realization. "I won't sssspeak. Ssshe'd rather you go to prisssson on your own, than have her location known."

Percy frowned. He hadn't even thought about that. It did no good for him to go to Tartarus on his own. His friends and Annabeth would still be stuck here, and he didn't want to push his luck by hoping they'd manage to join him at the police station. Getting arrested now would be bad. And now they both knew it. The demigod wished, not for the first time, that he'd just done something to stop Gaea from even getting out of the building in the first place. If he had, he wouldn't be in this situation now. Unfortunately, he and everyone else had been frozen in shock at seeing her again.

"You can't kill me. However," she hissed smugly. "I can kill  _you_. My Lady doessssn't need all of you anymore. Not now sssshe hassss two more demigodssss than sssshe'd previoussssly thought. I'm ssssure sssshe can afford to missss one of you, even if it'ssss the one sssshe wisssshessss mosssst to kill hersssself."

Percy had no option than to jump back when she suddenly lunged for him, holding one of the apparently and unfortunately  _very_ authentic souvenir spears in her hand.

"You can't fight back, little demigod. They will ssssee."

Percy leaped sideways to avoid getting kicked by one of the serpent trunks coming his way. "Seriously?" he complained as the dracaena slithered over the rickety table, throwing more than one collector's item on the ground. He barely took notice of the shrieks that followed directly after. "Who sells spears as souvenir in Los Angeles? Wouldn't a mini Hollywood Billboard have made more sense?"

"Have you ever tried fighting with a mini Hollywood Billboard?" She remarked to Percy's surprise. It wasn't often that a monster reacted to his sarcasm in a way that didn't involve angrily charging at him.

"No," Percy raised his sword to deflect one of her attacks, pushing hard against the spear to throw her off balance for a moment. "But maybe I will once I'm back at camp." With those words he took off, fleeing from the completely one-sided battle. He felt slightly guilty doing so, but the snake woman would have no reason to attack the fake mortals anyway.

To his relief the dracaena didn't even try to follow him through the crowd, and he managed to get back to the place where they'd all agreed to meet back before dark. Which was almost half an hour ago, so the son of Poseidon was surprised to see he wasn't the last one to arrive.

"Where is Jason?" Percy asked over the loud music coming from across the street. They were currently standing on the parking lot of The Greek Theatre, a place none of them had ever been before. Percy had only gotten there by asking for directions several times.

"Not here, obviously." Nico answered, concern hidden in his voice despite the careless words. "What took you so long?"

Percy grimaced as he sat down next to Annabeth on a wooden bench, throwing one arm over her shoulder. "Got held up by a dracaena. I'm fine, but so is the dracaena."

"Why?" Hazel asked.

"The Mist is gone so everyone could've seen me kill her. And then I would've gone to Tartarus on my own." He tightened his grip on Annabeth momentarily. "She said… she said that now we have two extra demigods, Gaea can afford to lose one."

"Jason," Nico said in realization. "He must've run into a monster too."

"I'll go look for him, you stay here in case he returns before I do." Thalia said determined, jumping off the roof of the car she was standing on. Percy was sure that if it had been him, the alarm would've gone off the minute he touched the car.

"Wait, Thalia!" Annabeth stood up. "I'm coming with you. You were in this dream right from the start, but I made the choice to come here."

"Wise Girl, no one blames you. None of us knew that this could give Gaea room to kill one of us."

"I know, but that's not the only reason why I'm going." Annabeth turned to him, and Percy instantly recognized the familiar look on her face. She had a plan. "Stay here with Hazel, Nico is coming with us too."

"I am?" Nico sounded surprised, but upon seeing the same thing Percy had he nodded. "Okay, I'm coming with you."

"Great. We'll see you back before the end of this concert." She left after giving the son of Poseidon a hasty kiss.

**Line Break**

So far Thalia didn't recognize any of the names written in the stars they were walking over. Honestly, her little brother got the easiest part of Los Angeles. There was no way he could've gotten lost or wandered of into another part that had already been covered by someone else.

It wasn't until they passed the twentieth star or so that Annabeth finally started to explain the plan. While walking of course, they still had to find Jason after all.

"Uhm, are you sure it's a good idea to say this while so many mortals could overhear us talking about monsters, Gaea and what not?" Nico asked her as they passed yet another group of people.

"Don't worry, they're allowed to hear every single word. I want them to watch while we kill the monster."

"You what?" Thalia asked perplexed.

"Earlier today, when Gaea told everyone in the courtroom that we are innocent, her words only affected half of the people. They didn't do what she wanted them to, which means that they're not fully under her control." Annabeth sounded like a scientist who had just made a major breakthrough.

Thalia stared blankly at her, then at Nico. "Am I the only one who doesn't get it yet?"

But the son of Hades didn't respond, he seemed lost in his own thoughts. He even almost bumped into a trashcan, for her father's sake!

Annabeth sighed. "If those people aren't under Gaea's control, then maybe someone else can control them. Someone like Nico, who is a Hypnokinetic."

"You want to steal her dream minions?" Thalia sniggered and looked at Annabeth for confirmation.

"That is one way to put it, yes." Ah, and there were the grey mad-scientist eyes. " And once we are sure it works, maybe it can help us go to Tartarus. And what better way to test if it works than having several panicky mortals watch as we fight the monster "

Then she suddenly realized that the Hypnokinetic hadn't even agreed to the plan. Had he even heard a word she said? She couldn't tell from his face that was barely visible in the light of the streetlights hanging overhead.

"Nico? You are okay with this, right?"

"Huh, what?" He blinked startled, before his eyes focused. Thalia found herself able to see his face again. Hmm, maybe it hadn't just been the lack of light surrounding them. "Ehm, yeah sure. But I have to tell you something first… I only remembered once Annabeth told us her plan."

Thalia listened with fascination as he explained that Clovis and he had already come up with the idea of taking control of the dream. But not only the mortals, the  _whole_ dream. He didn't know how to do it, though.

"That's basically the same thing Annabeth wanted us to do, until the Tartarus part," she said once he was done.

"I'm sorry, I didn't hear the  _whole_  plan. What was it again?" Nico asked Annabeth.

"At first I wanted to control the dream to let us go to Tartarus, but thanks to you and Clovis I might be able to think of a better idea."

"Wait," Thalia said. "I understand how you want to control people -just do something that will make them disobey Gaea in any way, like those people who were strangely passionate about sending us to Tartarus- but how are we going to do the same thing to the whole dream? Make a fire that Gaea can't put out?"

Thalia's question was actually meant for Nico, but since he was already looking at Annabeth for the answer she followed his lead.

Wisdom's daughter furrowed her eyebrows and bit her lip in a way that clearly said: 'Don't disturb, I'm thinking.'

They kept walking, and against better judgment Thalia was really starting to worry about Jason. The logical side of her brain told her that there was a big chance he had already returned to the parking lot behind the Greek Theatre, but there was a part of her that couldn't help but worry about her younger brother.

"I've got it," Annabeth broke the silence without a warning. "And actually, your idea of starting a fire wasn't that bad, Thalia. It just needed a little bit of refining."

Thalia tilted her head sideways, but kept looking around for Jason. "Seriously?"

"Yes, but we can't do it at random. We have to target the places were Gaea's influence is the biggest," Annabeth said. "Places like both camps and Olympus, because at least some part of her is focusing on keeping them in check. If she hadn't been, then they wouldn't have acted like you all described. So if we loosen her grip on those places at the same time, she will be almost powerless."

"I'm not sure if I'm strong enough to take control of the whole dream at once. Even if Gaea's weakened, she may still be powerful enough to at least keep us here." Nico said apprehensively. "Maybe it will only result in us getting stuck in a white room without doors, instead of America."

"I don't think she is able to do that," Annabeth admitted. "All the details in this world were only meant to make you less suspicious, which obviously didn't work. Gaea already knows that, and yet she hasn't changed anything."

"Still, I agree with Nico." Thalia added her opinion. "Maybe we can take over the world in three parts?"

"I didn't say I disagreed." Annabeth defended. "I've already thought of it, in fact. Nico, Percy and you talked to Hypnos, right? And he said that if his help was  _really_ needed, you could give him a call?"

"Not exactly in these words, but I think that's what he meant." Nico couldn't help the smile that made its way across his face. "A decent plan at last."

Thalia agreed whole-heartedly with him. "So what other places should we destroy? Gaea must be doing something about the Hunters too, but they may prove to be a little hard to find. How about the Amazo-JASON!"

Thalia wondered how she hadn't noticed the flying blond before, but apparently she wasn't the only one. Horrified cries from the mortals suddenly filled the air. But not only upon seeing the Teenage-Superman, who was floating three stories high above a dark alley.

Bellow him were two lion-like monsters, one of which was disintegrating to a heap of golden dust right in front of the mortals. The other one, who had previously been focusing on Jason alone, suddenly shifted his attention to the small group of demigods that he'd only just discovered. The monster roared loudly at them, showing rows upon rows of pointy teeth.

"Nico, I think this is a good time to practice controlling the dream."


End file.
